This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Renault Stalking Race Win Toyota Struggling On

Renault Stalking Race Win

Whilst the Austrian Grand Prix produced little for Renault to write home about, it did confirm that the team have what it takes to outperform at the circuits that do not suit their car, as well as those that do. Third place in the Championship is there for the taking.

There has been something very different about the outfit this year, and it is not just the scintillating performances from Fernando Alonso at the root of it. Rather than bemoaning the disadvantages of their under-powered engine, and waiting for better things, the team put together a car that leverages its positive aspects to the maximum. The low centre of gravity, excellent fuel consumption and tidy dimensions are all things that can be used to good advantage, and this is reflected. So the focus of the design was on identifying a leap forward with the aerodynamics, and pushing the chassis to maximise the Michelin tyre performance.

Renault's plans for the future hold some interesting details, including something that has dropped from the public eye. By next season, the team should have fully developed Michelin's Optimised Contact Patch (OCP) concept, which, working properly, uncouples chassis roll movement from tyre lean under cornering. This has several benefits, including improved grip, reduced tyre wear and deeper braking into corners. So, you would imagine that McLaren and Williams, who were both approached by the tyre manufacturer before Renault, would be interested. They must have turned it down for a reason: they did not see that there would be a sufficient benefit from the development time. Formula One cars do not exhibit a huge amount of roll under cornering - even a 'soft' set-up is so stiff as to be considered 'solid' by normal road car users. Even when the roll is not suppressed by the stiffness of the suspension, the amount of movement is minimal - so the inside tyre lifts. Without making the technology capable of working whilst the inside tyre is being raised from the ground, the benefits are slight.

However, Renault have some good reasons for pursuing this route. Commercially, it makes sense. The technology is intended for the commercial car markets, but is made far more desirable by being relevant to a sport: if Renault and Michelin can demonstrate OCP works, they will sell more cars and tyres. On another practical level, working with Michelin to get this technology working has the benefit of bringing the team and manufacturer closer together, promoting understanding, and improving performance. So, OCP is worth considering in depth: and with the proper development, it might bring some benefits. If the system can be made light and strong enough - the forces involved are enormous - then the team will gain some grip in low speed corners. At medium and high speeds, there will be limited gains, as the most significant contributing factor is aerodynamic downforce, though it could be that the few hundredths make a difference over a qualifying lap one day.

That's in the future. Right now, the immediate benefits of the program are bearing fruit: thanks to their evolving understanding of the rubber, and the time taken on Friday morning to work through a comprehensive tyre program, Renault's chassis is less wearing than any of the other Michelin runners come race day. This gives them options to run softer tyres, or heavier fuel loads. With the new qualifying format, running softer tyres is typically beneficial, as it offers the chance to do better in qualifying, whilst the improved cornering speeds and braking thoughout the race gives the drivers a chance to overtake slower cars.

All things being equal, Renault think that third in the Championship is attainable this year. Ferrari undoubtedly hold the edge, while McLaren have got off to a cracking start, and will be almost impossible to overhaul now. But Williams are struggling to show the pace and consistency that everyone expected for this year, leaving them looking vulnerable. Given the BMW power plant, and Williams ferocious aero development program, finishing the season in front would be a significant achievement in its own right. But that's not all Renault want for this year: a race win would be the icing on the cake.

Given that the new Renault power plant is still between forty and fifty horsepower short of the front runners, they are significantly disadvantaged wherever the emphasis is on the engine. Where they are really able to show themselves, is at the highest downforce circuits, where the efficiency of the aerodynamics can come to the fore. If tyre wear is also a factor, then, courtesy of their solid understanding of Michelin rubber, so is Renault. Roll on Monaco and Hungary: winning either is not going to be easy, but they offer the best chance the team can expect to see this season.

Toyota Struggling On

If there's a team that is really unhappy with their season so far, it's Toyota. After starting last year with two points scoring finishes, the rest of the season could be taken as it came, and written off as a learning exercise whenever things went wrong - which, inevitably, they did from time to time. Unfortunately, this season has not been working out too well.

The car isn't looking too bad - there have been times when it has looked positively quick, and a match for any of the midfield runners. However, with consistent performance and reliability both proving illusive, Championship points have been few and far between - and not looking especially like being scored, for that matter.

Looking at the performance of the car to date, it is clear that one of last year's biggest Achille's heels is still an issue: the car is not nearly good enough at handling bumps. This immediately means that the team is at a significant disadvantage at any circuit where riding the kerbs is important - a factor at around half the tracks they are visiting this year, and made all too obvious in Imola. However, there have been some solid improvements that really do bear mention: in particular, the aerodynamics on this year's car makes last year's look positively amateur, even though it is a tough challenge to get the balance right. Along with the aero improvements, the car is noticeably better under braking, largely because the upgraded suspension offers reduced pitch sensitivity.

Unfortunately, that same suspension set-up is the problem when dealing with bumps. Reducing the stiffness to improve bump handling causes the car to become pitch sensitive; this in turn leads to understeer heading into the corner as downforce is lost, snapping to oversteer as the front bites: unsurprisingly, the drivers then lose confidence in the car. Needless to say, they'd rather it is unpleasant over bumps than on every corner.

Besides the obvious problems of reliability - which has arguably cost the team, and particularly Olivier Panis - points this year, they are struggling to dial the car in at each track. Unlike the front running teams, who have years of data to work with, they are discovering that an hour of running on Friday is just not enough to find the best balance of the car, let alone fully optimise the package. The extra hour and a half on Saturday is better, but often still not sufficient to get the car both balanced, and performing on the limit.

In retrospect, Toyota have been wondering whether Renault might not have had the best of it, after all, with the decision to take the Friday testing option - especially heading towards Monaco, where track time is everything. Mind you, faced with such limited running, ironing out those reliability problems might be rather tricky. It's certainly taking long enough now.