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Daniel is unconvinced by the denials from Pat Symonds and Fernando

EG writes: Daniel sent this as a comment. Have a read:

"What I don't understand is this. Fernando is ahead of Lewis, so Fernando gets on the power on the exit of the corner before Lewis does and therefore appears to pull away from Lewis, as viewed from Lewis's car.

Now if that is generally the case, and having watched F1 since the mid 80's and I've not seen any different, how did Lewis so rapidly catch up with Fernando, enough to be able to collide with him? Does he have some sort of "warp speed" button that we are unaware of? Can someone please explain how this can happen other than Fernando lifting off the throttle when he would typically have been under hard acceleration? It just doesn't make sense to me."

Fernando lets a rather large feline out of the bag

Fernando is quoted in Spain today as confirming what most of us had already suspected, that he has a clause allowing him to leave Renault and that he has his eye on Ferrari. From what I can see, Fernando implies that he could go at the end of this season.

Here are two excerpts: "I'm at Renault because we won in 2005 and 2006 and I want to get back to that, if not this year then next year. But as I have a clause that allows me to leave, I will try to be in the best car possible, and it's clear that Ferrari is one of the best."

"It's early to talk about moves and rumours, but Massa has had two bad races with mistakes and that has sparked speculation - it's logical, but like I said, it's too early."

This will certainly set that (newly-liberated) cat among the pigeons of Maranello, Sao Paulo and even the odd village in Switzerland. 

The shock of Formula One

The last time I saw Nelson Piquet, prior to coming out to Australia, the young Brazilian was walking and talking with a swagger at the Renault car launch in Paris. It was a case of 'here comes the next stellar rookie with a famous name and a young man not afraid to say that he would be giving Fernando a run for his money'.

After a horrible debut today which saw him spin out of his first session of practice, then miss most of the second session(while his car underwent a gearbox change because of damage caused in that incident), Nelson finished the day with the figures 19th and 18th fastest next to his name which must have done his confidence the power of good(not).

Unluckily for him, he was then required to attend the official FIA press conference and the poor guy looked like he'd seen a ghost as he muttered into the microphone about "getting used to everything" on his first time out and trying to cope with first day nerves. You sensed the shock to his system that making his debut in Formula One had caused and his feeling of embarrassment about making a big mistake so publically.

In this situation, Flavio can be a real toughie as we saw with Heikki here last year - he called his debut "rubbish" - and the Renault team boss was certainly not looking happy as he watched his new driver go through his baptism of fire. Hopefully he has not been too hard on a guy who now desperately needs more track time but is likely to struggle all the way through this weekend.

The second session of practice was an odd affair with Mark Webber leading for much of it until Lewis went out at the end and took nearly a second off his time, setting the second fastest lap of the day(behind Kimi's time in session one). The gusty wind seemed to be quite an important factor with Giancarlo(9th and 12th) saying that it gave the track an inconsistent feel which made set-up difficult. Felipe who had a big off, going sideways through the gravel and grass at Turn 12, was once again third quickest, with Heikki completing a solid debut with McLaren, fourth for the second time. On this occasion Kimi(unhappy with his set-up) could only run sixth with Fernando(complaining about lack of stability under braking) 13th.

Apart from the fact that Ferari and McLaren are out in front, nobody seems too sure about what all this means and we will have to wait for quali to find out. Webber was realistic about his performance in front of his home crowd. "There was probably a few different fuel loads out there so it's hard to know exactly where we are. There are definitely four or five cars that are quicker than us," he said. While the Renaults look hard to drive, the same can be said of the BMWs with Heidfeld in particular fighting his car much more than last year. Williams, meanwhile, struggled all day with a gearbox issue preventing both cars running in the morning and a glitch in the differential affecting Nico in the afternoon but he still managed 8th fastest. 

Second practice times below...

In the garage with Renault, in pictures

Here's a little photo essay on Renault. Click on images to enlarge. Pics Ed Gorman/The Times.

 

In the garage with Renault

After just over a year in the paddock, I finally got the chance to visit a garage on a race weekend and what an eye-opener it was. Even after visiting team bases and getting to grips with the sheer size and sophistication of Formula One teams, I was surprised by how much technical support I found at Renault.

I was present during the Saturday morning practice session that was eventually cancelled because of the low cloud base on a wet morning at Fuji which made it impossible to fly the medical helicopter. Despite the lack of track action, there was plenty to savour however.

The Renault garage had the same easy, relaxed yet purposeful atmosphere to be found at their UK base at Enstone. As you walk in from the paddock there are tyre bays on one side and the engine workshop on the other. In front of you is a set of computer screens where the electrical engineers sit, monitering all the electrical systems on the cars. Further round to the right is another bank of space-age looking computers where six more technicians are based - two engine race engineers, two engine technicians, two engine electronics specialists. Again their job is to moniter data from the cars and they can communicate with the team on the pitwall when they need to.

Elsewhere there is a small composite shop where wings and other body work can be repaired, there is a gear-box and hydraulics shop and there are storage areas. As you walk through towards the garage bays, you pass the open shelving unit where Fisi and Heikki keep their gloves, ear plugs, fire-proof balaclavas, drink bottles and helmets. Each has two sets of everything.

After months of only looking into the garage from the pitlane, you get a very different feel looking out from inside. It's bright, busy and visually impressive with Fisi's car on the left, the T-car in the middle and Heikki's machine on the right. In front, across the pitlane, you can see the "wall" and beyond that, knots of Japanese race fans huddled under umbrellas in the rain. This was just another day at the races at Renault but I couldn't help but notice the contrast in demeanour of the two drivers; Heikki looked relaxed and happy and seemed to have a very easy-going relationship with his engineers, whereas Giancarlo was tense and nervy-looking as he paced up and down waiting to get in the car.

Renault have a nice facility at the back of the garage where visitors can sit and watch proceedings with headphones giving access to some of the radio traffic between the team on the pitwall and the guys in the garage. Again the mood is informal but purposive and the choreography is impressive when the call to action comes and (maybe) 50 guys go about their business in a crowded space.

Here's a flavour of the radio as the team prepared for the start of the session(the Renault drivers managed one installation lap each before it was stopped and then, eventually cancelled). Heikki was using his engine from Spa, Giancarlo was on a new unit.

"Session will start at 11.30." "OK Fisi - procedure on the way out and procedure on the way in. Two bite point procedures then a start. Target point 1200. No full throttle 'till 10 six and radio check. Radio check each corner please. Green light."

As the cars pulled out we started to hear the drivers calling in at each corner. (I guess the idea was to enable the race engineers to gauge the best places to talk to them and to check for any blackspots).

"Turn 10".(Heikki). "Turn 10 loud and clear. Cleggy, we will be doing the oil dip." "OK? Everything OK with engine, chassis, gearbox?"

"There's a little bit of standing water around Turn 3 - a little bit but not much..."(Heikki).

Once the cars were back, we watched from behind as the drivers sat with the TV monitors on and the engineers and mechanics removed the engine covers and tyres and mopped off the water. Then the team went into waiting mode as each deadline for a re-start came and went. Sporting director Steve Nielsen was the main man on the radio from the "wall", keeping everyone updated.

"Adam, we're ready again apart from tyres." "OK there'll be an update in two and a half minutes." "Young Dave the tyre set will be 4,2,1." "Other than tyres we're ready to go again." "OK I'll give you the nod for the tyres."

And on it went until the session expired and the drivers got out and resumed paddock life and the build-up to a wet qualifying session.

With the weather the way it is, there is a possibility that qualifying will also have to be cancelled. The precedent coming into force then will be Suzuka 2004 when a typhoon caused the cancellation of quali on Saturday and it was staged instead on Sunday morning.   

Visiting the F1 Factories: Renault

Renault's facility at Enstone has the most uncompromisingly rural setting of all the team bases I've been to. For a proud French company the purpose-built and quite compact factory feels very English, nestling as it does in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside. Of course there is an important French component at Viry-Chatillon but Enstone is the heart of the operation. There is an impressive entrance area with trophies on show and there were plenty of images of Fernando all over the place. But why not? (They may have been toned down a bit by now). Inside there are a lot of people in a fairly compact space and the atmosphere is informal - which you would expect from the "music-in-the-garage" lot - but purposeful too. I imagine things have tightened up quite a bit since the start of the season which has underlined just how far Renault still has to go to "un-Michelin" itself. Compared to McLaren this place feels very normal; the closest in the general yin and yang of it - in my experience - would probably be BMW Sauber.
Mood: University campus
Setting: Dairy Farm
High Point: Seeing where the spectacular R26 was cooked up
Low Point: Sensing the vacuum opening up where Fernando had once been(this was early December '06)
Memory: Being told by Bob Bell(technical director) that 2007 was, in effect, the "last chance saloon for Giancarlo.
(Pic via manuStudio)