Nick Chester explains the development work carried out by Renault over the winter: "We revolutionized the car in a month"

In an interview given to the columns of Autosport, Nick Chester returned to talk about the design of the new RS16, a single-seater which will bring the Viry Chatillion company back to the world of Formula One in an official manner, underlining how the French Scuderia is revolutionizing the concept used from the former Lotus in 2015.

The current Chief Designer of the Renault team explained that after the sale of the Enstone base to the French, who returned to Formula 1 officially after about five years, the engineers had to revolutionize the entire design of the RS16, given that the bonnet and all the rear part of the single-seater were based on the dimensions of the Mercedes power unit, Lotus' engine supplier until last season.

An enormous job, directed by the staff present in Enstone and by the technicians who arrived from Viry Chatillon, which involved the cooling and installation of some basic components for the functioning of the car.

“Integrating the new Renault engine into the RS16 was not easy, but the team did an impressive job over the winter”, said the British coach, already in Renault during the successful era signed by Fernando Alonso. “We revolutionized several components of the car in the space of a month and the changes to the chassis took us a lot of time.”

On the changes studied in the factory he added: “The inclusion of the Renault power unit also required a new cooling system. Changing engineers in May is never advisable, but we managed to change everything in time for Federation approval. The team has done an exceptional job and we are at this level only thanks to them."

As regards the crash tests, however, Chester underlined how the RS16 has passed all the approvals imposed by the FIA, an aspect that will allow the French team to participate in the next pre-season tests in Spain: "The car has passed all the checks scheduled by the Federation and will regularly take to the track during the first tests in Barcelona", he concluded.

Roberto Valenti