Despite having openly admitted that the
Renault team needed a 'tidal wave of change' to begin making inroads into
Formula One's current top three, technical director Bob Bell insists that he expects to see an improvement from the Enstone
equipe in Spain this weekend.
Fernando Alonso and
Nelson Piquet Jr both tested the squad's latest developments at last week's group session at the Circuit de Catalunya, and Bell claims that the changes made to the R28 had provided promising results for both the short and long term.
"[After Bahrain], our main focus was to prepare for the Barcelona test last week, which was very important for us as we have quite a major aerodynamic upgrade and some new mechanical components for the R28," he confirmed, "The purpose of the test was to verify that they were all fit for purpose and then to pick the best parts for the Spanish Grand Prix because some of those upgrades are circuit dependent."
Aerodynamic efficiency is always a key factor in Barcelona, despite the introduction of a new chicane last year removing one of the most critical high-speed parts of the lap. Although the track is not as demanding as it once was, however, it remains the ultimate test of a car's aero package - somewhere that the R28 was found wanting.
"We now have quite a clear picture of where we are underperforming," Bell revealed, "One of those areas is our aerodynamic performance because, at the moment, we are deficient in aero-generated grip in the high-speed corners. That's where we are making the biggest push, because that area is probably contributing the most to our lack of performance.
"Equally, however, we are losing out in the low-speed corners, where the performance of the car is dominated by mechanical grip, so we have suspension upgrades that will start addressing those problems. We are also a bit down on engine performance and we can recognise a straight-line performance deficit compared with other teams. However, in the world of frozen engines, there is not much we can do about that."
