In a preview for the race at Shanghai, Renault's technical director James Allison confirmed that the R30 will feature a brand new floor and an alternative front wing this weekend. The aim for those developments is to get both the R30s into Q3 on Saturday, as this is regarded as the only factor that currently separates Renault from Mercedes GP.
“We will have more updates in China, including a new floor and an alternative front wing. Although this might not be enough to get ahead of Mercedes in qualifying trim, it should move us closer to their tail. And if we can jump ahead of them at the start of a race, I'm confident we have the pace to stay ahead,” said Allison.
“At the moment they're only just ahead of us on qualifying pace, whereas we seemed to have the edge on race pace in Malaysia,” added the Renault technical.
Indeed, qualifying has been a problem for Renault, as only Kubica managed Q3 presences so far in the championship. However, the car developed by the Enstone technicians has already made a name out of itself for being a quick starter, as making up places on the grid until the first corner of the race has always been an advantage of Kubica and teammate Vitaly Petrov over their rivals.
Prior to the Malaysian race a couple of weekends ago, Renault's team boss Eric Boullier also admitted in the media that Renault's aim for the 2010 campaign is to finish inside the Top 4, and reckoned the only way to do that is to challenge Mercedes GP for the 4th spot in the manufacturers' race.
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