Renault to Revise Aero Package for R29

Following reports in the Swiss media concerning Renault R29's poor on-track performances at Algarve, team's technical director Pat Symonds insisted that the poor lap times scored by Alonso in Portugal were not proof enough to question the car's development throughout the winter. Although he admitted not having a good explanation for the poor timing sheets, Symonds insisted the test brought his team a lot of data to work with ahead of the following tests of the off-season.

“I was disappointed. It wasn't a great test. We didn't really have everything quite the way we wanted it on the little bit of dry running we did. But we did come away with a lot of data to study and saw some things that we need to attend to. The aerodynamic maps of these cars are really very different and maybe we hadn't taken enough notice of that in the set-up,” said Symonds in an interview for Autosport magazine.

“We can do better, which will make the car easier to drive and therefore better. But I really think this year more than ever it will be those last couple of tests that are the indicator,” added the Renault technical boss.

According to some other media reports in Spain, Fernando Alonso was not very enthused with the performances of his 2009 challenger, following his first outing at Portimao. However, Symonds promised that the R29 will feature a major aerodynamic revamp in the next couple of weeks in order to boost the car's performances ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.

“We can't find the final set-up until we've got the full aero package. I don't really know where we are relative to other people. I was impressed with the speed of the Williams – there's no doubt about that – but let's see what we've got in those last couple of tests,” concluded Symonds.