Renault insist R29 will be on the pace

Renault technical director Bob Bell says his team are happy with the performance of the R29 so far despite some underwhelming times in testing.

The new Renault has been near the bottom of the timesheets at most tests so far, but Bell believes that yesterday's result at Jerez - where Fernando Alonso was second-best amongst the 2009 cars and 0.2 seconds slower than McLaren's Lewis Hamilton - was more representative.

"It's still very early days, but I'm becoming increasingly more satisfied with the performance of the car," said Bell.

"Obviously the Portimao test was a disappointment to us as we only had one dry day and although the car ran well from a reliability point of view, we still had lots of unanswered performance-related questions.

"It's true that we didn't look great at that first test, but that was not really a surprise to us as we simply got the car out with an interim set of bodywork so that we could get miles on it, evaluate reliability and get the KERS system up and running. So we didn't really expect to be that competitive, especially as we were learning about the set-up that is needed for this new generation of cars.

"Since then we've put a lot of things right at the Jerez test and I think we've made good progress. Overall I'm encouraged by what we've seen so far.

"From what we've seen in Jerez this week, I don't feel there are any fundamental problems with the car: it's well balanced and is responding well to changes. We're lacking a bit of grip, which is the same for everybody, but that will improve as we fit new parts to the car and continue our development up to the first race.

"Overall I feel we're on course to deliver a good performance in Melbourne."

The distinctive nose section of the R29 has attracted particular comment since the car's unveiling, but Bell said the fact that they had followed different ideas to their rivals did not mean that Renault had got their design wrong.

"With new regulations this year, all the teams have gone away to develop behind closed doors and so it's no surprise that you end up with as many different solutions as there are teams," he said.

"All we can do is be sure that we've done the best job we can and accept that to begin with the cars will look very different. So far I've not seen anything on our competitors' cars that is particularly worrying for us or makes me think we've taken a fundamentally wrong direction."

Renault have now decided to cancel a planned private test in Barcelona next week in favour of running at the Spanish Grand Prix venue in the week before Melbourne - a decision that Bell is very happy with.

"It may be more difficult from a logistical point of view because we've got to get the car to Melbourne the following week, but it buys us more development time to get new components onto the car and tested prior to Melbourne," he said.

"It was something that we had in our minds as a possibility and I think it's a very worthwhile decision."

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Dennis: F1 still attractive for sponsors

Formula One has no reason to fear that ING's decision to quit the sport is a precursor to other high-profile sponsors heading for the exit.

That is the view of McLaren team principal Ron Dennis, who thinks that F1 continues to offer great value for sponsors despite the financial difficulties faced by companies worldwide.

Banking giants ING announced on Monday morning that it had decided not to extend its involvement in F1 beyond the end of the year, having been Renault's title sponsor since 2007 alongside other involvement that included trackside advertising and race naming rights.

And although doom mongers may suggest that ING's decision to turn its back on F1 may be a warning sign that other big backers could walk away, Dennis thinks that the sport's base remains strong.

Speaking to autosport.com about what ING's decision meant for F1, Dennis said: "Clearly, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment specifically on ING's decision, other than to make the observation that it's obviously something of a special case because ING is a bank that has faced particular challenges recently.

"Having said that, I want to take this opportunity to emphasise the fact that Formula One remains a hugely attractive sponsorship proposition, which offers an extremely powerful return on investment for the companies involved.

"Indeed, ING's statement included the following sound bite, reiterating what its marketing executives have said publicly many times: 'Over the past two years, ING has successfully achieved its objectives for the Formula One sponsorship, raising its overall global brand awareness by 16 per cent [March 2007 versus November 2008]. Formula One remains a powerful business driver even in a difficult economic climate.'

"Undoubtedly, that's true. And, working under the umbrella of FOTA, all the Formula One teams intend to do their utmost to power through this economic downturn together, delivering optimum return on our partners' and sponsors' investment as we do so."

ING's decision to leave F1 came after it was forced to make dramatic cost cuts in the wake of an expected one billion Euros loss for 2008.

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Newey ready to rethink future in F1

Famed car designer Adrian Newey has admitted that Formula One's increasingly restrictive technical regulations are forcing him to ponder whether he remains in the sport for much longer.

Newey could be on the verge of one of his most successful seasons for years, with his new RB5 having shone in early testing, but he has conceded that he is already evaluating an F1 exit in the next few years.

Although excited about the raft of regulation changes that were introduced for this year, Newey feels that the challenge will be less in future seasons because the rules are now so tight.

Speaking exclusively to this week's Autosport, Newey said: "I would definitely like to step back in the not-too-distance future. The rules are becoming more and more restrictive.

"While it has been exciting to have such a big regulation change for this year, ultimately those regulations are more restrictive than the one's we've just come away from."

Newey has said if he chooses to pursue opportunities elsewhere, he would still like to retain some links with F1.

"Maybe I'd still be involved as a consultant, but that would have to be on the terms of the team," he said. "It has to be that the engineers at the team would want me to be a consultant, otherwise it just wouldn't work."

Newey added that "within two or three years it will definitely" be time to look elsewhere.

The feelings about restrictive regulations in F1 have been echoed by FIA president Max Mosley, who believes that it has been a mistake to make the sport's rules so tight.

"It's a fault with the regulations," explained Mosley. "They have constricted the areas where they can work to keep speeds and costs under control to the point where you get the best returns by endlessly refining every single component of the car."

He added: "People like (Colin) Chapman, (John) Cooper or (Keith) Duckworth would be lost in modern F1. We have this culture of minimal innovation and endless refinement."

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Raikkonen leads the way in Bahrain

Kimi Raikkonen led the way for Ferrari during testing in Bahrain on Friday, as the weather cleared to finally allow the teams present to get some running.

Ferrari, BMW Sauber and Toyota had all travelled to Bahrain to escape the risk of rain wrecking running in Europe, but have been left frustrated by sand storms instead.

However, the sand clouds finally lifted on Friday to allow the outfits to get some mileage under their belts as they continue preparations for the 2009 season.

It was Raikkonen who topped the times for Ferrari, just edging out Toyota's Jarno Trulli as both completed a large amount of mileage.

"The track was very slippery in the morning, due to the sand, but we managed to go ahead with our programme," said Raikkonen. "It's a pity for the time we lost over the last days, but it didn't depend on us. This happens and you just have to accept it. My first day with the new F60 on a dry track was extremely positive.

"I immediately had a good feeling although it's still too early to say where we are compared to our competitors. The car is improving and there are no especially critical areas. We used the KERS also today and I'm happy with how it works, apart from some minor childhood disease."

Trulli, who completed almost two race distances, said: "This was a good day's work. In the morning the track conditions were still really poor with a lot of dust on the circuit. It was also very windy but the surface cleaned up during the day and got better and better.

"We managed to get through a lot of laps and the car balance felt pretty good. We are still playing around with set-up and other parameters to understand how to get the most out of the package. But it looks promising so far so let's hope we can carry on like this."

BMW Sauber test driver Christian Klien was third fastest as he got his first taste of the new F1.09. He was pleased the team could finally get on with some of the test programme that had been mapped out from the start of the week.

"In the morning the track was still slightly wet as a result of being cleaned after yesterday's sandstorm," said the Austrian. "Because of this it took some time to build up a proper grip level. That gave me the opportunity to get used to the BMW Sauber F1.09, which I drove for the very first time.

"In the afternoon the track conditions were much better and we were able to go ahead with our test programme as scheduled."

The teams will resume testing in Bahrain for four more days next week.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:33.325 105 2. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:33.429 127 3. Klien BMW-Sauber (B) 1:33.666 125 All Timing Unofficial

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Gillett: Donington GP remains on track

Donington Park CEO Simon Gillett has dismissed reports of a rift between himself and Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd president Tom Wheatcroft, and has reasserted his claims that all of the circuit's preparations for the 2010 British Grand Prix remain on track.

A story in today's Telegraph claimed that Gillett had been served a writ by Donington Park founder Wheatcroft over unpaid rent, however Gillett said there was no war between himself and the 85-year-old.

"Far from it," he said. "The Wheatcrofts and I get on incredibly well. Tom is our president, and we are working with them. Tom is as wedded to the success here as we are.

"It's interesting. It's that point in our project where people are looking to make some gain out of what we have. We are on track, we have got the money, we're going forward, and as we've said, at the end of March we'll be coming out and telling you exactly how it is all being done."

Gillett also elaborated on his rebuttal of media reports from earlier this week claiming that DVLL had debts of £66.7 million and made a loss of £12.4 million last year, based on company reports that were said to have been filed at Companies House.

On Monday Gillett denied the claim and questioned where the figures had come from, insisting that the company's reports had not even been filed yet. But speaking at Donington Park today, he said that the figures represented the acquisition costs of the Donington facility.

"What they are reporting is our 2006/7 account," he explained. "When we bought the business, we paid a certain amount of money for the business and in that year we decided that all the acquisition costs, we'd write off in one year. So is it actually a loss? No. It's an accounting treatment; how we treated the acquisition costs of the business in that year.

"Financially, we are where we said we would be. We are in rude health, and we are ready for our financing round coming up at the end of March."

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Q and A with Renault's Bob Bell

Conducted and provided by the Renault press office.

Q. Bob, after two test sessions, are you pleased with the performance of the R29?

Bob Bell: It's still very early days, but I'm becoming increasingly more satisfied with the performance of the car. Obviously the Portimao test was a disappointment to us as we only had one dry day and although the car ran well from a reliability point of view, we still had lots of unanswered performance-related questions. It's true that we didn't look great at that first test, but that was not really a surprise to us as we simply got the car out with an interim set of bodywork so that we could get miles on it, evaluate reliability and get the KERS system up and running.

So we didn't really expect to be that competitive, especially as we were learning about the set-up that is needed for this new generation of cars. Since then we've put a lot of things right at the Jerez test and I think we've made good progress. Overall I'm encouraged by what we've seen so far.

Q. What are the drivers' verdicts on the car - what feedback have they given you?

BB: They've both been very positive and the biggest surprise for them was perhaps the KERS system as we felt that initially we would have a lot of problems with it and getting the drivers used to it.

In reality it has been quite a straightforward transition. In terms of the car's basic characteristics, the dry week in Jerez has helped us get a much better set-up on the car, fit new development parts and both Fernando and Nelson seem happy with the balance of the car.

Q. The R29 has not been topping the time sheets in testing. Is this a sign of underlying problems?

BB: What matters is performance relative to other teams and at the moment it's very difficult to judge because everybody is running different programmes, interim bodywork and different fuel loads. I think things will become clearer when we approach the final winter test, but for now it's too hard to judge.

However, from what we've seen in Jerez this week, I don't feel there are any fundamental problems with the car: it's well balanced and is responding well to changes. We're lacking a bit of grip, which is the same for everybody, but that will improve as we fit new parts to the car and continue our development up to the first race. Overall I feel we're on course to deliver a good performance in Melbourne.

Q. A lot of attention has been paid to the front end. Are you confident you've taken the right approach?

BB: You can never be totally confident and there simply aren't enough hours in the day to test all possible combinations of designs. With new regulations this year, all the teams have gone away to develop behind closed doors and so it's no surprise that you end up with as many different solutions as there are teams.

All we can do is be sure that we've done the best job we can and accept that to begin with the cars will look very different. So far I've not seen anything on our competitors' cars that is particularly worrying for us or makes me think we've taken a fundamentally wrong direction.

Q. Comparatively the team has completed less mileage than its competitors. Is this a concern and will it cause the team to slip behind in the development race?

BB: I don't think so. Going back to KERS, the team has done an absolutely remarkable job to develop the system largely on test benches and get it onto the car and running as reliably as it has been.

In terms of normal car development and proving our general reliability, I think it's fair to say that all the teams are suffering from the fact that there is a lot less testing this year, but I don't feel that we are any more disadvantaged compared to any other team. Yes, we may be slightly down in terms of relative mileage, but we had a strong end to the Jerez test and completed a race distance on Thursday and Friday without any dramas so it's not causing me any great concern at this stage.

Q. The team's testing schedule has shifted recently with a preference to test the week before Melbourne, rather than next week. Why did you take this decision?

BB: We did originally schedule a test next week in Barcelona, but when we started our testing programme we realised that it is actually better to delay that test and move it to the middle of March. It may be more difficult from a logistical point of view because we've got to get the car to Melbourne the following week, but it buys us more development time to get new components onto the car and tested prior to Melbourne. It was something that we had in our minds as a possibility and I think it's a very worthwhile decision.

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Hamilton sets 2009 cars pace at Jerez

World champion Lewis Hamilton was the fastest driver in 2009 machinery on the penultimate day of testing at the Jerez circuit.

But the Briton was shadowed by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who finished just 0.001 seconds behind in the RB5, as the car continued to show its potential in only its fourth day of running.

Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais, in his first test since he was confirmed for the 2009 season, posted the quickest time of the day in the 2008-spec car, finishing over two seconds ahead of Hamilton.

The McLaren driver, taking over from teammate Heikki Kovalainen, managed 93 laps at the wheel of the MP4-24 and was left pleased with his day's work.

"Today's test gave me the first opportunity to drive MP4-24 in warm, dry conditions - and I'm very encouraged by what I felt," he said.

"The car feels strong, very similar to last year's car, in fact. It doesn't take long to get used to the new buttons in the cockpit [KERS & front-wing flaps] but the real test for everyone now is to understand the slick tyres ahead of the first race in Melbourne next month."

Vettel completed just one lap less than the Briton as he continued with the development of the new Red Bull.

He finished ahead of Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso in the Renault, the Spaniard the busiest man today with 133 laps.

"Today was all about getting mileage on the car, especially with the new KERS system," said Alonso.

"It was my first full dry day in the car and so I was able to learn a lot. We completed lots of laps, which is encouraging and now we will start working on the set-up of the car so that I can get more comfortable with it."

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:18.493 128 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:20.737 93 3. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:20.738 92 4. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:20.898 92 5. Alonso Renault (B) 1:21.307 133 All Timing Unofficial

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