Renault: Overtaking not as easy as we thought

[John S]

This surely vindicates the Flappy wings after a breathtaking China GP.   
If the fastest cars in a straightline find it tough to jump the car in front the Flappy wing rule, and use, seems about right. Plenty of drivers managed loads of overtaking with the wing open, so the man in the car is still a deciding factor.     

The Lotus Renault GP team was unable to maintain its run of podium finishes for the third successive grand prix after managing only ninth place in round three in Shanghai.

The frustration was highlighted when it emerged that the R31 had the fastest straight-line speed, with Heidfeld clocking 322.6km/h and Petrov 322.5 km/h, and team boss Eric Boullier admitted that he had expected passing to be simpler with the car's full potential.

“Starting where we did, it was always going to be difficult to repeat the results we have had already this season, but, in the end, it turned out to be quite a frustrating afternoon for us and we didn't really make the progress we expected in the race," he conceded, "Part of the reason was that overtaking was not as easy as we thought it would be, even with the DRS.

"We need to review our strategy because it wasn't easy to make the calls today and it's clear you need to switch tyres at exactly the right moment. Still, it's good to pick up more points with Vitaly and we now have three weeks to regroup before Turkey to make sure we can be fighting closer to the front.”

Extracts from longer piece on Crash.net, April 17.

[Wats-on]

For as far as I have seen, overtaking a Renault was not that easy. Heidfeld was passed a few times as if he was lapped... 

Let's hope his bad luck is over for this season...

On Topic: I think the FIA made the right desision for the DRS-activation zone to put somewhere halfway the back straight. I think that if the activiation zone was put at the beginning of the backstraight, it was overtaking at will...

See the fight between Fernando and Michael. Great fight!

[Jericoke]

In all the time I've been following F1, I don't know that the car with the fastest straight line speed was ever the best car in terms of lap times.

I remember being surprised in the 90s that the teams with the highest speeds in the speedtrap were finishing off the podium.  Now I understand that the downforce used to keep a car grippy in the corners comes at a cost on the straightaway.

[John S]

In all the time I've been following F1, I don't know that the car with the fastest straight line speed was ever the best car in terms of lap times.

I remember being surprised in the 90s that the teams with the highest speeds in the speedtrap were finishing off the podium.  Now I understand that the downforce used to keep a car grippy in the corners comes at a cost on the straightaway.

I'll leave you to explain it to reckless Eric at Genii, oops sorry Renault (or is it Lotus?), then Jeri.  

[lkjohnson1950]

Renault shot themselves in the foot by holding Heidfeld too long in the garage in Q2. Then they started too far back without Mark Webber to drive or Ross Braun as strategist. They are fast, but not fast enough to make mistakes and still get a good result.

Lonny