Talking to British newspaper The Guardian, the Renault official excluded the possibility of his team debuting the new design on the R29 in the upcoming 2 races of the 2009 season. Not only that, but Symonds also argued it would take a lot of hard work to get something done by the Spanish Grand Prix, scheduled on May 8th thru 10th.
“It would be possible to have something done to our car by the first race in Europe. That could find us maybe three tenths of a second,” said Symonds for the aforementioned publication.
“But in order to find the other two or three tenths necessary to put us on a par with the three cars carrying what I believed to be an illegal diffuser will require a substantial reworking of the rear of the car. Ironically, the three would have had a much easier job converting the other way,” added the Englishman.
Renault have developed a similar double-decker design through the winter but did not use it because the FIA ruled it as illegal.
Furthermore, Mercedes Motorsport Director Norbert Haug also insisted that miracles cannot be done in a few weeks and nobody expects the other 7 teams to catch up with the “diffuser three” in the next few months.
“What some did in nine months cannot be done by others in nine weeks. Our sporting spirit tells us: 'it is time to get to work, we accept the challenge' but we are going to need some time,” said Haug, according to German news agency SID.
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