The new single seater hits the track

With preparations for World Series by Renault in full swing and the newsingle seater, developed from the Dallara chassis, right on schedule,yesterday saw the new car take to the track for the first time at Italy’sVairano circuit, under the keen eye of all the Renault Sport staff andpartners.

With Jonathan Cochet behind the wheel, the roar of the new 425bhp 3.5l V6engine was soon to be heard trackside at Vairano, just south of Milan, and thefirst few kilometres were reassuring to watch. The engine has alreadydemonstrated its potential in the course of exactly 18 hours of bench tests. “Weare happy with this first outing, commented development manager JérômeMortal. This was very much a warm-up. The result is as expected and we’reconfident for the future.”

The new single seater, intended for the 30 drivers participating in the WorldSeries 2005 championship, is now to embark on an exhaustive developmentprocess. “On the track, we’ll be making sure that the technical performance iscompliant with the initial specs, pointed out Jean-Paul Mari, Renault Sport’sMotor Racing and Communications director. Now the car’s on the track, we canreally roll up our sleeves and get to work on getting the reliability and thedynamics right.”

With an intensive schedule ahead, the Renault Sport development team hasorganised several test sessions before the end of the year.

Jaime Alguersuari, Chairman of RPM Racing, was keen to stress: “the WorldSeries 2005 is in full swing - racing schedule, teams, the car, we’ve goteverything in place to be able to stage superb meetings next year”.