British GP: Renault Report

Q & A with David Lamb

Can any meaningful running be done in these conditions today?
It is very difficult to draw any real conclusions in these type of conditions. The only thing you can do is get a feel for the set-up if conditions are predicted to remain wet for the rest of the weekend. However teams only get three sets of wet weather tyres from Pirelli per race weekend so you need to calculate this into the plan for the rest of event. You can run on intermediates, but this is obviously a risk so you have to weigh up the risk versus the gain – Alonso did this today. Overall, it was not the most interesting day from an engineering point of view with only very limited running!

Do you have to make any special concessions for the rain?
A lot of people believe that you need to make different choices based on the weather, and this is the case for the chassis engineers, but from an engine engineer’s point of view, there are only a few parameters we change, and these are generally geared towards making the initial pedal application as smooth and repeatable as possible, even if it comes at a loss when viewed from other performance perspectives such as fuel consumption.

What is the forecast for tomorrow and will you have a busier day as a result?
Things are looking brighter, but we have to watch the weather forecast very closely closer to the time. At the moment, there is an 80% chance of rain for qualifying, but the morning is predicted to be drier. This might make it busier as drivers acclimatise to the different conditions. Hopefully there should be more overall track running as a result, which would be great for all the fans that couldn’t see a lot today. Track time in FP3 will be very important, so we are likely to reduce the amount of tests we conduct so we don’t impinge on the driver set-up and feedback; which will ultimately be the greatest laptime gain tomorrow.

Was the engine damaged in Bruno’s accident this afternoon?
No, actually the engine is fine and after checks it will be re-used again in Hockenheim. There is obviously a lot of work to do to the chassis and a new engine will be fitted but the one for today can and will be used again..