Renault Sport F1’s Technical Director Nick Chester expects the RS16 to have a strong run at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza after a relatively competitive performance in Belgium last weekend.
“It demonstrates that the car is working well at most track configurations now so we can go to Monza expecting to do a reasonable job.”
With the four long straights necessitating the team to run a very small rear wing to reduce drag, and with the Renault power unit being improved significantly this year and looks to be on par with the Ferrari power unit, the team should not be as vulnerable on the straights.
“There are four long straights so we need to run the lowest wing level of the year to be able to reach the highest speeds we can. However, you still need to make sure the car has good balance with a low level of downforce. There are some very hard braking points, but you have a lot less wing to be able to slow the car down.”
Chester talked about the impact of Kevin Magnussen’s huge crash at Spa, and revealed that the chassis involved in the incident was too badly damaged to be reused, so the Dane will use a new chassis this weekend.
“The accident was clearly sizeable and the damage sustained is too great to use the car for Italy. The current spare will become Kevin’s car in Monza and we will take another chassis out as a spare.”
The conditions in Monza could be challenging but would not affect the team’s preparations. The high temperatures will not make a huge difference in the race apart from high tyre degradation.
“We didn’t have any particular problems with the heat in Belgium so even if it does transpire to be as hot it should not be an issue.”
