Vitaly Petrov has been confirmed as the second driver with the Renault F1 at the team’s launch in Valencia.
The new R30 appeared in Spain in the team’s new colour scheme which, as we suggested, are a throw back to the old days of the old Renault Sport team with yellow and black being the predominant colours. There is still funding from the Total oil company but otherwise the team has little sponsorship at the moment, following the departure of a number of sponsors as a result of the Singapore 2008 scandal.
The new car features a similar rear fin as several of the other new cars.
Check out launch video from Renault
If all goes to plan Petrov will become the first Russian Formula 1 driver. Although he has clearly come with a big bag of sponsorship, Petrov has shown himself to have considerable talent in recent years in GP2. He finished second in the series to Nico Hulkenberg, despite having a great deal less experience than most of his rivals. There are nonetheless reports circulating that he brings $21m with him, which is good news for Renault which needs to top up its budgets after the disasters of last year. It will be interesting to see which names appear on the car in the weeks ahead. The signing is good news for Renault in terms of the Russian markets as well. The company’s Logan model has sold very well in Russia and with Petrov racing in F1 it will no doubt sell even better. Renault hopes to expand its Russian sales both with its own cars and with Lada, which it part owns. The announcement is good news for F1 as well as the Formula One group has been keen to get more of a presence in Russia for some years. The long term aim is to get a Grand Prix but finding a solid promoter has not been easy. Nonetheless the Russian market is huge and F1 sponsors will be glad to see Petrov’s arrival. Petrov will join Pole Robert Kubica (below).
Oops, like Sauber: nearly no sponsorship! Apart from some details, the car looks very similar to their previous car… that’s no good.
Besides the interesting ‘Road Works’ colour scheme, the Renault continues to look mildly crap.
On second glance, quite alot crap.
Hopefully this is not another season of tears for both Mr. Eastern European.
Thank goodness the winter is over.
- D Hon
Love the livery! Reminds me of the Jordans.
So what’s the story behind these shark fins? Ferrari didn’t go for it (well not to the extremes of Renault, Sauber or McLaren — the fin’s even fused to the rear wing!), I suppose it’s legal, or is it an interpretation that might be controversial? I wonder if one designer figured out the advantages and the design leaked out to the other 2 teams?
You can barely make it out, but on the 4th image down, the CGI, on the back of the rear wing you can make out the ING logo
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/7437/19310093.png
I don’t know why, but the Kubica next to the newly liveried Renault reminds me of a certain ‘Professor’. Shape of things to come, I’m sure Renault hope!
Great for Russia!
Anyway, it seems like it was all decided these couple of days and I doubt Renault were this stupid not to have plan B. So who was plan B?
Heidfeld, Maldonado?
And apparently the “test drivers” were decided also very, very late and they also had plan B?
the ugliest livery i have seen in a long time
is that really an R30? looks like an R29 to me
Interesting. There are reports that he has no major backers, just his dad and some of his friends.
Who’s he friends with if he’s coming with $21 million?
I’m surprised that you didn’t mention the nose. All the other have a rather flat and elongated nose and theirs is round and stumpy. I wonder how quick that will change, as the nose is a separate piece…. then again its the first contact of air and all other peices are shaped around how the nose cuts and moves the air. Interesting stuff, as this is the first visibly different feature (tail fins aside)
Adrian Newey needs to be castigated for those awful shark fins that now appear on all the cars but Ferrari it seems
They look goddamn awful
If you painted all the cars white I’d reckon you’d have a hard time identifying them each type.
Great. Now we’ll have to spend the whole of the 2010 season listening to Eddie Jordan blithering on about how the Renault R30 looks just like a Jordan GP car…
I’ve seen the livery photoshoped with black endplates front and back and it does improve it drastically
Oh noes. The diffuser was kept covered in the pitlane.
More diffuser-in-court games this year I suspect
@ James Bennett – good spot, eagle eyes ! I LOVE that colour scheme, so bold and will stand out on the tv.
Renault have lucked in there eh, they sold the team but still get free advertising for how many years, 3, 4 ?
@ Louis – I read something about the shark fin design recently, something to do with downforce and low speed air flow, something about stalling air.
I forget exactly, but it’s downforce related as opposed to just extra advertising space
I went to the Atelier Renault on the Champs Elysees to see the car that they are presenting as being the R30. OK, it has the R30 livery but by looking at it, I knew immediately that is was not the R30 and not even the R29.
I took a few pictures and compared them to the R28: no. To the R27: no.. To the R26: no… To the R25: yes!!
At least, they tried to make it look like a 2010 car by fitting a narrow rear wing and by removing all aerodynamic devices from the side pods.