Formula One news

Damper row hurt Renault - Symonds

The row around Renault's mass damper system during last season really harmed the team's progress and almost cost them both championships, engineering chief Pat Symonds has said.

"During a fortnight in August, I focused almost exclusively on preparing documents for the FIA hearing," Symonds said. "Other engineers worked on the subject too, when they could have been working in different areas - performance development, for example. The whole affair used up resources that could have been exploited elsewhere, and also brought a major performance penalty on track. We re-optimised the car for the final races, of course, but the R26 would have been a quicker car at Interlagos with the system fitted."

"First of all, the battle on track was tough, really tough," he added. "Our rivals didn't seem to have any weaknesses, or almost none. We had to seize every little opportunity. And it was a difficult season politically as well. It was hard to come to terms with events like the mass damper affair and Fernando's penalty in Monza."

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