FÓRMULA-1

Meet the Renault F-1 factory

To get to know the Renault Sport Formula One Team a little better, we visited the Enstone factory, where everything is done with regard to the chassis of the car. Since its design, aerodynamics, dynamic aspects of single-stage, design, manufacture of composite parts, metal, manufacturing, assembly and all operation team operation. The engine is made in Viry-Chatillon, near Paris ...In Enstone there is a wind tunnel for a model with 60% maximum scale, with all the adjacent paraphernalia of visualization and technical analysis, a simulator, of the most evolved ones that exist in the market, an operating room totally linked to the teams on the slopes.Since Renault arrived at Enstone, staff numbers have grown by 50%, with 680 people from 22 different nationalities currently working there. By the end of next year there should be about 750 people in Enstone. All in all, Renault's F1 operation now stands at more than 300 million euros / year.



Investments in Enstone
Since January 2016, investments in Enstone of more than 50 million euros have been made. The factory was enlarged and about 2000m², this in addition to an extensive renovation and readjustment of what existed. The factory has been equipped with new modern equipment, which has exponentially increased the factory production capacity. Twenty new CNC machines (Computer Numerical Control, electromagnetic machines, which generate prototypes of parts from a computer file), six ADM machines (which allow great customization in the manufacture of parts, which could not be manufactured) were acquired. a new cluster of CFDs (in English: Computational Fluid Dynamics).A new dynamometer (useful in the development and preparation of engines) was also purchased. A large 'upgrade' to the wind tunnel was also made, a new paint area was built, a chassis test bench. The area of ​​the 'clean room' was also duplicated, where all composite components are manufactured.



Six year plan
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team is currently in its third year of six planned for this phase of development of the team and by 2019, as it is already public the biggest news was the hiring of a top driver, Daniel Ricciardo, who joins in 2019 to Nico Hulkenberg, which in theory means that only in this aspect can the team raise its level.Working in a structure like Red Bull's for many years, the Australian has a great understanding of what it takes to win, and simply requiring a car and a team to match his talent can make all that gravitate around an F1 team to raise their level.What we see on the track is clearly directly proportional to the combined work of the many hundreds of people working at Enstone and Viry-Chatillon, and Ricciardo is yet another piece that can help to sweep away all this complex gear.The existing platform is already solid, but to get wherever you want, Renault has to hone all its work, because only with this it achieves more performance and consequently reduce the margin for the three front teams, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.For the year, the fourth of this six-year plan is the intention of the team leaders, to fight for podiums, maybe not yet very consistently, but start appearing nearby. But for this they have, logically, to move clear of the middle of the pack, what they achieved in the second half of this season, but that at this time have had difficulties in maintaining.
From Renault's first F1 race in 1977 through the 1990s, an era of 'motorized' dominance through Williams and Benetton, the 2005 and 2006 world-wide successes as a builder, a new period of dominance as an engine supplier , between Red Bull Racing, between 2010 and 2013, this latest chapter comes with ambitious goals, but as it has long been perceived, the competition is very strong, is still far off, and will take time to get there.How much, it is difficult to say, but it is certain that the work that is being done will bear fruit, because there is no shortage of resources, facilities and people able to 'deliver' results. The rocket has started, it's getting better, looking at the results, growth has been evident, but now there are missing the most difficult steps of all, those that lead to the penthouse where the super-teams are installed.At the moment, in terms of human and material structure, what separates Renault, Ferrari and Red Bull from Renault is no longer expressive, but all departments of Renault in F1 have now to raise even more. To understand a little better what has been done in Enstone, follow the next pages ...



History of Enstone
Enstone has been the home of F1 teams since 1992. After buying Toleman, Benetton Renault bought the factory from the Italians in 2000, five years later won the F1 World Championship between 2011 and 2015, the Lotus Renault GP and then the Lotus F1 Team, until he announced that he would return to F1 as a factory team in late 2015. Enstone is at the heart of the team's chassis operation in a job overseen by Executive Director Marcin Budkowski and the Director Chassis Technician, Nick Chester.



Office Design
In a room where Renault F1 lives and breathes, most of the 70 or so employees are dressed in the 'club' sweater, there are replicas of the F1 scattered across the desks, not even the wallpaper ...Designing an F1 is an extremely complex and detailed task, with a huge set of factors that have to be taken into account, whether in design or in the implementation process. Just for the chassis design in Enstone, more than 70 people are assigned to the Design Office (DO). Transmission design, mechanics, stress analysis, for example. The Vehicle Performance Group (VPG) is another group, whose purpose is to develop a plan that encourages interaction between the various subgroups so that everything goes' on.About 150,000 hours are spent, making 19,000 computer-aided drawings (CAD) to define 14,500 components of the car, with work beginning about 18 months before the start of the season to which this monolugar relates. Every year, the FIA ​​determines the regulations, which are then fully scrutinized by the management of the team and designers, so as to fine-tune their initial plans and make the set as competitive as possible.




Twelve months before the start of the season, the single-seat design is already being made, and the first components are tested. Eight months before the start of the season, work begins in the wind tunnel. The first chassis has to be ready before Christmas.However, it is always a difficult balance to achieve, for evolving the single-seat race that is running at that moment is equally important, and the results (or lack thereof) usually determine where the focus is going. In the following year or the current year. And this is a critical decision, because betting on the current one can contribute to the next ... failure.


Wind Tunnel and CFD
F1 is a sport in which aerodynamics plays a very important role and this is reflected in the size and importance of the Aerodynamics team at Enstone. The wind tunnel has a key role in the design, development and aerodynamic understanding of a Formula 1 single-seater. The Enstone wind tunnel was inaugurated in 1998, occupies 2,674 m² and unlike the past, its activity is restricted and totally controlled by the FIA. The federation can at any time request the recording of one or more sessions, there are cameras attached to the FIA, which looks at them whenever they want.Since 2014 and for cost control reasons, teams can only operate 520 times the wind tunnel in a period of eight weeks, which is equivalent to about 65 sessions per week. You can do more or less, but the total can not be exceeded, under penalty of heavy fines. The FIA ​​checks and records all team activities in the wind tunnel in order to police this rule.The FIA ​​also requires the use of a maximum scale model of 60%, which is placed on the wind tunnel treadmill, where it is exposed at a speed restricted to 50 meters per second (180 km / h). Any and all components can be tested, and thus their potential is determined. All elements that affect the car are tested in the wind tunnel. Just look at a current F1 and notice the amount of parts and small wings that can be used. About 250 pieces per week are tested, but with a pre-determined top speed of 180 km and a model with a 60% scale engineers will never get the results they liked. In addition, the wind tunnel only 'reads' the single-seater on the right and not in a curve, where it is more necessary that the aerodynamics do its work.In the wind tunnel it is possible to test the aerodynamics, ground clearance, drag, deformation of the tires and the exhaust system. In 2017, the wind tunnel was upgraded and received a treadmill system having also increased the yaw angle.



José Luis Abreu, de Portugal