Oliver WhiteWilliams weren’t the only team showing off a new car this morning as Renault too took the wraps off their 2009 challenger in Portugal. The Enstone-based team had both Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet Jr. available to do the honours, and as the R29 was unveiled, a new livery could be seen dressing the 2009 car. Piquet Jr. took the machine out a for a few installation laps in the morning, but most of the talk centred around the team’s use of a shark fin engine cover.
With the new regulations comes an adherence to no aerodynamic winglets adorning the bodies of the cars, the intention being to reduce grip and therefore improve racing. Whether or not this will work remains to be seen, but Renault believe the shark fin engine cover is within the rules. I think they’re right as the part doesn’t generate downforce, instead the augmented cover provides stability under braking and entering corners.
Also top of the talking list at Renault’s end of the pitlane was the striking new livery. Renault have incorporated more of their company colours into the mix and eradicated the dark blue that we saw on the R27 and R28. With title sponsor’s ING orange and a base colour of white, the new red of Total makes the livery stand out. The nose section of the car has also caused a bit of stir, perhaps because of it’s colour the front appears to be quite chunky.
Despite the looks though, Fernando Alonso will be hoping that the R29 can carry on where the R28 left off, the Spaniard having won two races last year in a car that really wasn’t near the overall pace of the McLaren and Ferrari. With two world championships in his pocket though, Alonso knows how to develop and nurture a car into a winning machine.
Photos © RenaultF1/LAT Photographic.
Good. It looks rubbish on your site too. Glad it isn’t just mine…
That’s just plain grim. Toyota making a car that looks nicer than a Renault, who’da thunk it?!
Hehe, it is a pretty poor livery. Hopefully it will go like a bat out of hell, but that would be it’s only redemption!
can i request a “renault livery development” article in the near future please?
as much as we chastise toyota for being dull…
The Ronald McDonald mobile!
Already in the works, my good friend!
Hahaha! 😆
Nice! Glad to see Renault (and Flav, and Alonso) bring some color and flare to F1. Makes up for the blandness of some other teams. And that nose, so gaulois!
[…] Renault ran Nelson Piquet Jr. for their initial laps in the new R29. Fernando Alonso was trackside to keep an eye on proceedings and will drive the new […]
Well, I can’t argue with you on that point! (Do you really like it, bem?)
For as bad as the machine may look, the team overalls are perhaps the worst part of the whole deal….
[…] the popularity of the Toyota Livery Development post from Thursday last week, and also given that Sidepodcast have made a request, here’s a quick run down of Renault’s liveries over the years. Of course, the French […]
I like it……
With the exception of the rear wing, that is. The font looks a bit odd.
The bright yellow & orange appeal to me, and the car will certainly stand out on the grid.
Having said that though, nothing can beat the 04-06 colour scheme they had going.
The orange stripe on the race suits so needs to be red. Or dark blue, like last year…
Wha…? 🙂
Indeed, those liveries ruled.
As vomit-inducing as this model is, i’m really enjoying witnessing the splash of individuality and character that each team are presenting with their new machines thanks to the redesigned regulations. As temporary as these original design aspects may be (before teams begin to decipher what is more and less effective), it’s certainly leaving me reminiscing of more varied manufacturer eras.
Some developments are hideously disproportionate, but i prefer being able to separate each team through garish aerodynamic means again rather than just insipid paintwork differentiations on identikit cars.
EDIT: Haven’t they banned those shark fins yet? In general, the freshly unveiled machines are fantastically interesting, but those silly aids are gross!
As far as I know, Toyota have been the first to put on the Shark-Tail-Finn on their 2009 car. Sure, it wasn’t there at the presentation, but they used it one day before Renault pulled out their car out of the garage. However, I somehow saw it coming that they will stay in Formula 1, they are not an “extra” part to the aerodynamic-basic-form of the car, they are part of the whole.
Personally I hoped, that they would return to their great white-yellow-black livery they used at the end of 1979 on their RS11. That really would make even that horrible form look alot better. Especially because this colorcombination only looks good on sharp-edged cars – like the R29 is.
The front end of these new cars is very different on each one, that’s one thing I really like. The problem is… it still doesn’t look familiar and beautiful to me. I would prefer that “full of extra parts” front from the Sauber F1.08 always over these new ones.
Most beautiful car of these new ones still is the McLaren in my opinion, it does look lightyears better than the rest… Too sad, they will not be allowed to use that MP4-23 rear wing they used yesterday on it. That really looked good to my eyes…
PS: found this site via google and added it to my (not so long) favorite list… very nice site! I just hope you won’t sell it because of these ugly new F1 cars…
Actually… I really like the colour scheme! It’s perhaps, IMO, the second best looking 2009 car with the F60 being #1.
However, I have to question the legality of the front winglets situated just in front of the upper wishbones. I was under the impression that the body work had to clean and free of these down force generating devices.
@Jamie: I think the fins might still be legal because they don’t generate and down force, they only offer stability while braking and cornering.
@Ollie: What’s your opinion on these winglets?
Cheers
Stephen
As it doesn’t generate downforce, it’s allowed. The shark fin adds stability under braking rather than pressing the wheels into the ground. (And credit to Stephen who answered before me.)
The over-engineered F1.08 actually grew on me offer the course of last season until it got to the point where I was considering it as one of the prettiest cars from last season.
Welcome empii, it’s good to see new names and hear new voices around the site 🙂 No chance of selling! 😀
To be honest, I’m not sure yet – I haven’t had a chance to look through the rules and get the exact wording. When I do though, I’ll make a decision on them. For now at least, they don’t look too bad and break up the huge wing a little.
Thank you for the warmth welcome :). Well, great to hear that. So I bet, whatever the last three cars (as I expect to have identical RB5/STR03) may look like, you will go on with the site. I once wanted to create such a site too (surely in german) but I’m an idiot when it comes to webcodes, blog-creation and whatnotelse. So I just settled to write in forums – sadly with low response (for ex. http://forum.moosbueffel-racing.de/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=269&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a)
I just bet… we haven’t seen everything yet. It’s difficult to top that Renault, but I got the strange feeling, that one of the pending to be released cars will be the absolute horror for people with a sense for esthetic as I do have :D.
You bet! 2009 will be a vintage season, I hope. A three-way battle for the title would be great between Hamilton, a Ferrari or two and maybe a BMW. Even four if the Renault goes faster than it looks.
BlogF1 just celebrated its third birthday, and that post proves that I was once an idiot when it came to code and design. 😀 By the way, your English is just fine. Better than my German, anyway!
I was dreading the BMW launch today, as I really didn’t like the way the interim car worked. But actually, the F1.09 doesn’t look too bad. I am wondering about the Force India though. The 2008 livery wasn’t the greatest – I preferred their ’07-’08 interim livery with the dark red. Recent images for a calendar suggest FIF1 will use more colours from the Indian flag (orange and green), which could work. Anything is better than that weird red/orange colour they had in 2008.
We’re a pretty friendly bunch here on BlogF1. Most comments get a reply either from myself or another member of the community. It’s the community that makes the F1-blogosphere so great. 🙂
Funny, i took a fresh look at it today and i like it more, heheh. But i hadn’t noticed the overalls until Gman pointed them out, yeeeikes.
We’re nearing the Chinese New Year here in Vancouver and somehow the overalls make me think the drivers just got back from a Lion Dance dress rehearsal and didn’t have time to change. Oh well, at least on TV we’ll mostly see their torsos.