Technical analysis of the Renault R29

[John S]

Renault are taking some unusual directions with the R29, could be a winner!
By Craig Scarborough, Today on Autosport.com


Almost immediately after Williams unveiled their new car in the Portuguese pitlane, Renault rolled the R29 in front of the gathered media.

Striking with both a new livery and an aggressive shape, the new car is a departure for the team. Again, the most apparent feature is the nose treatment, but also the extraordinary sidepod exits.

The new nosecone arrangement takes some ideas from last's year scalloped undernose and applies them to the FIA neutral middle wing element.

In order to make this fixed aerofoil section add downforce, Renault have added a bulged nose area just above and behind it, taking the nose to its maximum width and filling in the space behind the front wing mounts.

In doing this, the team have chosen a Venturi section to create low pressure and thus downforce over the front axle, an area that might otherwise create lift.

Like all teams bar McLaren, a two-element front wing then mounts the nose, with quite large endplates aimed at diverting the airflow off the front face of the tyre to reduce drag.

Around the front of the sidepods, Renault have yet to fit a bargeboard or pod wing, while their front splitter treatment is typical of the other 2009 cars, with a lip running on the edge of the splitter. Renault maintain their practice of extending the vertical splitter between the floor and the raised nose as far forward as the front wheels.

For the balance of the sidepods, the R29 features deeply undercut sidepod fronts, with extra cooling inlets for the Magneti Marelli KERS system. Then the sidepods fold into the coke bottle area to form an extreme shape for the cooling exit.

As there is no cooling exit on the top part of the sidepod (although the rules allow for one), the exit area is entirely made up by the widening of the coke bottle shape nestling in between the rear suspension. More cooling outlet area is afforded by a exit atop the gearbox.

Above this area Renault have fitted a shark fin top body, like Toyota did on Sunday.

At the very rear of the car the diffuser and rear crash structure follow normal practice, while it appears the rear damper layout has been changed to alter the orientation of the torsion bars, thereby mounting the dampers lower down inside the titanium gearbox casing.