Formula One news

Piquet to use double diffuser in Bahrain

Brazilian Nelson Piquet will be running with a double diffuser for the first time in Bahrain this weekend, after team-mate Fernando Alonso debuted the device in China last time out. The Spaniard, despite being the lightest fuelled car on the grid, qualified second on Saturday, with Piquet sixteenth.

"Nelson will have the new diffuser in time for Bahrain," confirmed Renault technical director Bob Bell. "It simply wasn't possible to make two in time for China last weekend, but I think that we did a great job to get one out to China.

"We were very pleased with the basic performance of the car as we took a good step forward with the new diffuser that we fitted to Fernando's car; we're all very happy about that and the effort that went into producing it. Sadly we didn't bring home the result that we hoped for, but that is more to do with the strategic approach we had to adopt and how the race unfolded." With the race starting behind the safety car, the team pitted Alonso on lap seven believing the Mercedes would lead the pack for a significantly longer time; as the safety car came in at the end of the lap and with Alonso on a heavy fuel load, the Spaniard struggled back to ninth by the end of the afternoon.

"There is more to come, as the diffuser is a very new area of development and there will be a big push to continue its development over the next few months," Bell added. "We're also working on various upgrades to other parts of the car that we would normally work on at this time of year."

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