Montagny to stay close to Renault

By role
February 26 2004

Renault F1 Test Driver Franck Montagny has moved from Barcelona to Oxford in order to stay close to the team. Last year Montagny was involved on the Telefonica World Series by Nissan , which he won, and therefore was living in a warm city in the South of Europe.

He is now living in acity where the rain and cold wind are more than common. However, the French driver is not complaining at all:

"Oxford seems cool - I’m looking forward to getting to know the city,” says Monyagny. “Of course, for me, the main point is that it means I am close to the factory, and can come see the engineers at any time. Jarno and Fernando both live in the UK, and they have excellent relationships with the whole team. That is something I am determined to emulate.”

Montagny has been one of the busiest drivers in winter testing. Though he had only the chance to drive last year's R23B he is quite confident on the learning he is doing:

"The team has been excellent over the winter,” says Franck. “In November, I still had plenty to learn about driving an F1 car: now, after nearly 10,000km in the R23, I feel comfortable with what the team needs from me. The winter has been interesting because we have been learning all the time, even with the old car: we are doing development programmes for systems on the R24, such as suspension or electronics, and of course plenty of tyre testing.”

Is he looking forward to have the R24 on his hands? You bet:

“For me, it’s just a question of being patient,” he explains. “Fernando and Jarno have done the development during the winter, to prepare for the season, but their feedback has been very positive. I’ve seen how they have worked over the winter, learned from them and can’t wait to begin working on developing the car.”


Franck is not going to be resting long as he will be present at each race this year and therefore is flying to Australia together with the rest of the team. His task will be to attend the race and be ready just in case he has to replace Jarno or Fernando at the wheel:

“It is going to be slightly strange for me, being on the sidelines while the drivers are out on track. But don’t doubt it, as soon as the race starts, I’ll be their biggest fan. It looks good so far, and I’m looking forward to getting out to Australia to see how things really stand.”