White pleased with Renault engine

The performance of the revised RS24 engine pleased the Renault F1 Team's engine technical director, Rob White, who is already looking at the next developments.

Yesterday evening, following the B-specification RS24 engine's race debut, Rob White made no secret of his optimism. "I am very pleased with the performance of our engine throughout the weekend," he said. "We didn't have a single problem in three days of running, and once again got both cars to the finish. What's more, the performance gain was significant."

The team left Imola with the best points haul of the season so far: nine points. "From a general point of view, I think it's good to see that we can be competitive with Ferrari," continued Rob. "It was only with Michael Schumacher at the wheel that they won that race. That's a good sign. From our point of view, we got the strategy absolutely right and the drivers both did a good job. We need to continue in that vein."

The other pleasing sign was that both Renaults once again made it to the flag in the points. Only Ferrari has done as well. "Reliability was our major priority this winter, and we concentrated hard on it," admits Rob. "Our performance so far is a credit to all the engineers at Viry and Enstone who have worked very hard on this programme."

In two weeks; time, the Spanish Grand Prix could allow the R24 to give fuller expression to its potential compared to a difficult time in San Marino. "That's exactly right," concludes Rob White. "We know the track like the back of our hands, and know that the car runs well there. What's more, we will have some more improvements to the engine in order to adapt the V10 to the characteristics of Barcelona. Once again, our priority will be total reliability."

-renault-