New aerodynamic components for Renault

Like BMW and championship leaders Brawn GP, the Renault team will introduce several new components to its car at the Nürburgring this weekend. Currently seventh in the constructors' championship, Pat Symonds is aware that a large performance jump is necessary in order to move up the pecking order. Driver Fernando Alonso has already commented this week that at least half a second must be found in order for the R29 to have a real chance of threatening at the front this year and the team's director of engineering is also not hiding the fact that the contender remains off the leading pace.

"We had certainly hoped for a better result," said Symonds of Renault's Silverstone weekend. "In free practice we were more or less in our usual position but in the third part of qualifying we did not perform at the level we expected to. Then we had a poor start to the race and spent a lot of time stuck in traffic, which made it very difficult to recover."

With an abandonment of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) agreed by the teams for next season, constructors are now fully focused on developing in alternative areas. "As always, we are concentrating our attention on aero as it's still the fundamental element that brings the most speed to the car," Symonds explained.
"New developments are introduced at every race and we've got a reasonable upgrade for the Nürburgring which includes a further version of the new front wing that we evaluated at Silverstone. We're also hoping to have some new rear wheel fairings and an updated engine cover as well as some mechanical upgrades." The BMW team will also be making use of a new device this weekend, with the roll-out of an updated double rear diffuser, as Brawn experiments with parts which the team elected not to use at the British Grand Prix.