Formula One news

Mixed day for Renault duo

Renault remained at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona today to continue with its preparations for the 2008 season. The team was operating two R28s with Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet on driving duty. 

Like yesterday conditions were cold and damp with consistent showers leaving the circuit wet for most of the day with patches of standing water. As a result the team was forced to postpone its scheduled programme and wait until the afternoon when the conditions eventually began to improve. The team made the most of the day by checking the systems on the car and rehearsing various race procedures in the garage.

Alonso completed limited running in the wet, but like yesterday the damp conditions meant the team was limited in what it could learn. The team will test for a further day tomorrow, and will remain in Barcelona for the test next week.

"Another disrupted day and we did not do many laps," said Alonso. "It was too wet in the morning to do any running so we waited until the afternoon. We did some laps and tried some things in the wet and it was a chance to get used to driving without traction control and to improve the behaviour of the car in these conditions. Tomorrow the forecast is better - we have been waiting for these conditions all week, so fingers crossed." 

Nelson Piquet commented, "It is hard to be patient when you have spent two days waiting around for the weather conditions to improve. I finished the day having completed only a single installation lap - a bit frustrating for me and all members of the team who had hoped that the track conditions would have improved by the end of the day. Tomorrow the track conditions will be better and hopefully we will be able to complete some proper work."

Christian Silk, chief test engineer added, "The weather was same as yesterday, and so again it was difficult to learn anything, and there was little point risking the cars in the tricky conditions. Fernando did some system checks in the afternoon, but as the conditions did not improve we ended the day early again. We will turn our attention to tomorrow and use the mileage when we feel we can get more out of it."

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