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[McLaren Fan]

From autosport.com:

By Michele Lostia and Pablo Elizalde Thursday, November 20th 2008, 10:22 GMT

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore is adamant the French squad are back to their best following their strong end of the 2008 season.

The team, world champions in 2005 and 2006, had a torrid season in 2007, followed by a poor start to 2008 despite the return of Fernando Alonso.

However, the Spaniard won two races near the end of the year and scored more points than any of his rivals from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards.

Renault's form convinced Alonso to stay at the team for 2009, when Briatore reckons they will be a force to be reckoned with again.

"I really think so," Briatore told Autosprint magazine. "We have everything we need, we make developments, and each improvement we find ends up in the car immediately.

"We've gone back to the situation we were in before 2006. Ferrari, too, didn't win almost at all in 2005. It happens, in F1 the line between doing very well and very bad is very thin.

"But to do that we had to change a lot, hire new people, younger and hungrier of success. The secret is, you first need to understand what's wrong, and only then you start working.

"Otherwise you end up building a car without solid bases. Last year, this way, we lost five months before understanding where the problem was. Re-doing the wind tunnel by updating it completely required time. But we're ready now."

Briatore said he and Alonso were talking about a new deal all year, despite the announcement coming after the season was over.

"Fernando and I were talking every weekend, but we agreed not to say anything before the end of the year," he added. "With him in the team, we can experiment with the other driver, but Grosjean is too young and has made lots of mistakes in GP2 this year.

"In any case, if you want to beat someone really strong you need to grow your driver in-house. Like we did with Fernando and like McLaren has done with Hamilton."

Briatore also defended the FIA's decision to unfreeze engine development for next year, as he reckons it will make things more equal.

"I think it's fair that it is: you can't freeze performances for five years while leaving someone so far behind," he said. "When we learnt of the FIA's intentions, we removed 80-90 people from the engine factory at Viry. I don't think the others did the same thing.

"It was a mistake, and another one was made by the FIA by allowing a certain margin for intervention on the injectors. This goes completely against the spirit of the rule, which should have frozen performances for five years at the moment when performances were about the same for everyone."

Well, the whole engine freeze was/is a mistake, but I think Briatore is really trying to pass the buck for Renault's own failings. The fact is there were loopholes which easily be exploited and the team didn't do that. Before any holier-than-thou Renault fans come out and say their team was merely sticking to the ethos of sport, that simply doesn't wash here. Briatore is the past master at exploiting loopholes in regulations. Put simply, he fell asleep at the helm. Perhaps Elisabetta Gregoraci has worn out or he's thinking of retirement too soon. Or maybe his semi-retirement is result of the former two.

[KyrosV]

Yes we all know, Renault slipped up and fell behind in 2007 & 2008, But there were alot of changes in the team and goings on in the sport. But I belive were on a recovery course and will return to be a force for the 2009 WCC.

Before any holier-than-thou Renault fans come out and say their team was merely sticking to the ethos of sport

Thats rich coming from you

[7UpJordan]

Renault won't be back to their best unless Piquet improves/gets ditched.

[the stig]

if renault can keep momentum through the winter they have every chance of being serious title contenders in 09. alonso will be as hungry as ever and i think we would all love to see sparks flying between lewis and fernando again. i for one missed the intensity we had in 07!

[KyrosV]

Renault won't be back to their best unless Piquet improves/gets ditched.

I dont know, I think Piquet has the potential to match Fisi at least. Maybe with 1 years experiance he might be better 2nd time round. If not we should ditch him

[7UpJordan]

Renault won't be back to their best unless Piquet improves/gets ditched.

I dont know, I think Piquet has the potential to match Fisi at least. Maybe with 1 years experiance he might be better 2nd time round. If not we should ditch him

I don't know, but looking at last week's test when Senna - in only his second outing in a modern F1 car and in a poor Honda - was faster than him, that must show either that Senna is more than the real deal (which I really hope) or that Piquet is real crap.

[Denthúl]

Renault won't be back to their best unless Piquet improves/gets ditched.

I dont know, I think Piquet has the potential to match Fisi at least. Maybe with 1 years experiance he might be better 2nd time round. If not we should ditch him

I don't know, but looking at last week's test when Senna - in only his second outing in a modern F1 car and in a poor Honda - was faster than him, that must show either that Senna is more than the real deal (which I really hope) or that Piquet is real crap.

Or neither?

Those testing times last week saw that Senna and Di Grassi were, at one point, as much as five seconds slower than Wurz. Because everyone was testing so many different car configurations, you can't take anything from the times.

[al4x]

renault got caught with a poor engine at the freeze, and didnt use the loopholes etc, mistake

i would like to think that there is more to come from the renault engine next year, will they have kers, i dunno

[2eyebrows]

Does anyone think Renault's performance gain towards the end of the season was a little fishy? They claimed that they would focus on the 09 car, yet Renualt's pace improved quite dramatically , particularly with Mono's victories (tho lucky circumstances did contribute to those) I'd read a rumour somewhere that they were running those mass dampers again and FIA would turn a blind eye in a deal with sweaty greaseball Briatore. I'm doubtful there is any truth to it, still the gains do make me wonder.

[McLaren Fan]

Does anyone think Renault's performance gain towards the end of the season was a little fishy? They claimed that they would focus on the 09 car, yet Renualt's pace improved quite dramatically , particularly with Mono's victories (tho lucky circumstances did contribute to those) I'd read a rumour somewhere that they were running those mass dampers again and FIA would turn a blind eye in a deal with sweaty greaseball Briatore. I'm doubtful there is any truth to it, still the gains do make me wonder.

They made some reliability enhancements to their engine.

[2eyebrows]

They made some reliability enhancements to their engine.

... because engine reliability's been such a huge problem for them this year. It makes perfect sense

[MCL2k6]

Even if Briatore tells that they didn't do good 'cause of the engine-freeze, I'd still say that the come-back of Alonzo to the team made the difference. The guy is currently probably the best car developer race driver from the whole grid. But, even with his presence, it took some time to re-design the car, and results to show up.
What I do not know in what extent this new technical regs change affected them. They do not have the budget of Macca and Ferrari to adapt to big changes (like we will have from 2009).
I guess it remains to be seen. Perhaps in the February test we will have a clearer picture of who's were, but I really hope that we will have many more teams to be out for winning, and not just the usual faces

[Denthúl]

Even if Briatore tells that they didn't do good 'cause of the engine-freeze, I'd still say that the come-back of Alonzo to the team made the difference. The guy is currently probably the best car developer race driver from the whole grid. But, even with his presence, it took some time to re-design the car, and results to show up.
What I do not know in what extent this new technical regs change affected them. They do not have the budget of Macca and Ferrari to adapt to big changes (like we will have from 2009).
I guess it remains to be seen. Perhaps in the February test we will have a clearer picture of who's were, but I really hope that we will have many more teams to be out for winning, and not just the usual faces

They didn't have the budget of McLaren or Ferrari in 2005 or 2006, but they took some titles. Renault's successes are down to technical innovations and getting the things that matter most right. For example, their mass damper (which, having read up on it, I see no issue with) and excellent launch control systems gave them certain advantages over other teams. I do wonder what might have been in the past two years if the mass damper hadn't been banned. The 2007 car might have had a couple more podiums and this year's car may have had a few more wins.

[MCL2k6]

They didn't have the budget of McLaren or Ferrari in 2005 or 2006, but they took some titles. Renault's successes are down to technical innovations and getting the things that matter most right. For example, their mass damper (which, having read up on it, I see no issue with) and excellent launch control systems gave them certain advantages over other teams. I do wonder what might have been in the past two years if the mass damper hadn't been banned. The 2007 car might have had a couple more podiums and this year's car may have had a few more wins.

In 2005 Renny got the upper hand till some point, but Maccas had a better development cycle (hence the money), so performance-wise they had the upper hand. Not reliability-wise 'though

About banning the mass damper. FIA shenanigans They said it was a movable aerodynamic device - which I didn't understand cause the stuff was inside the nosecone actually. I mean no airflow would've reached that device. But when Max says jump, everybody must jump.

[McLaren Fan]

They didn't have the budget of McLaren or Ferrari in 2005 or 2006, but they took some titles. Renault's successes are down to technical innovations and getting the things that matter most right. For example, their mass damper (which, having read up on it, I see no issue with) and excellent launch control systems gave them certain advantages over other teams. I do wonder what might have been in the past two years if the mass damper hadn't been banned. The 2007 car might have had a couple more podiums and this year's car may have had a few more wins.

In 2005 Renny got the upper hand till some point, but Maccas had a better development cycle (hence the money), so performance-wise they had the upper hand. Not reliability-wise 'though

About banning the mass damper. FIA shenanigans They said it was a movable aerodynamic device - which I didn't understand cause the stuff was inside the nosecone actually. I mean no airflow would've reached that device. But when Max says jump, everybody must jump.

It was deemed an aerodynamic device because it apparently affected the pitch of the car. I really don't into that, and, even if did, other things affect the pitch of the car anyway, such as normal suspension travel.

In terms of McLaren's development, money is a factor, but a large part of it is down to the team's infrastructure. If you go onto You Tube and see tours of various teams' factories, their setup looks very amateur when compared with what happens at McLaren Technology Centre.