I have just received an e-mail from Renault informing me that the visitors to L’Atelier Renault (a fancy name for a showroom) on the Champs Elysees in Paris will get the “exclusive” opportunity to get a first glimpse of the new Renault F1 Team R30 at exactly the same time as the car is presented to the media in Valencia.
This confused me somewhat as it also said that the R30 would remain on show in L’Atelier until February 28, which naturally had me wondering what the team is going to use for testing throughout February, as there are no teams out there which has built extra cars at this time of year, when the production capacity is needed to manufacture all the ideas that come out of the tests in time for the first race. So I must conclude that the car being unveiled and left in Paris for a month is a 2010 show car, rather than the real thing.
That is fine – and a very good idea for getting the public interested in Formula 1 – a tough call these days for a French manufacturer with a Luxembourg-owned, British-based team, employing a Russian and a Pole (a bad combination in historical terms!)…
Still, you have to give them full marks for trying.
So, be warned, if you feel like stealing a real Formula 1 car in the next month the Renault might be an easy target, but when you jump in and press the big red button that will inevitably be there with the word “Start” right next to it, you may find that the engine noise might not happen…
joeblogsf1 
Having yet to visit Paris, can anyone tell me if the common man on the street can walk in and view the F1 car, or is this showroom reserved for more”exclusive” customers only? 😉
You can walk in. Normally.
“employing a Russian”…have I missed something?
Pretty sure you know that, but for the readers who might not l’Atelier Renault is a bar/brasserie on the Champs Elysees so anyone can just pop in and have a drink or a lunch in a quite nice athmosphere. There always are some nice cars on display (I have memories of a nice Alpine exhibition in march 2008)….
@Tom, Petrov is the odds-on favourite for the second Renault seat. Barring a disaster, it should be confirmed at the launch.
Good point on Russo-Pole relations, though, from Joe… More WW2 references. 😀
Journeyer,
No the problems have been going on since medieval times…
Last time I was in Paris it was when Alonso won his second championship, Renault and Formula1.com advertised a big Renault event in Paris where Fernando etc would all be there, big event etc etc. So the next day we shot down to Paris (from Essex) on Eurostart to Paris and when we got there, it was just a big flop, all for cameras, the same 5 minute stunt repeated, we went over to one of the guys to ask what was happening, was someone coming? No, it was just for local tv cameras.
The l’Atelier Renault was good though, definitely worth a visit if anyones in the area.
My office is close to the Champs Elysées, so I’ll go and take a look on Monday.
Traditionally, the F1s that are displayed in the Atelier Renault are 1 or 2 year-old cars, updated with the current livery. But they are labeled as the current car (an R28 with the R29 livery will be called an R29). Purists (like me…) may not like it, but I’m sure they think that “the common man on the street” will not see any difference.
I hope we will see the return of the 70’s/80’s yellow/black livery.
Ha!
Joe you just brightened my morning.
I could quote Spike Milligan on the subject of the Poles but probably better hadn’t…
great restaurant – we went there in 2005 and watched the British GP there – sat upstairs, ate beautifulo food, had our own tv to watch it on and downstairs they had a lot of cars on display, big screen showing the race with Patrick Tombay commentating – they even rang Flavio during the race – unfortunatley my french isn’t that great!
Any idea of the exact time for the unveiling?