This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Jaguar Play by the Numbers Renault Casting a Shadow

Jaguar Play by the Numbers

It's strange to hear so little coming from Jaguar at this point in the season. Since the inception of Stewart Grand Prix, there has typically been a steady murmur through the off season, concerning the steps forward the team is making, where the future lies, and just how well the team is capable of running.

Sometimes, they even lived up to the hype - moving forwards relative to their associates in the midfield, though never quite managing to run with the promise of their first year.

It's hard to know why things are different this year. Niki Lauda is certainly not adverse to a bit of constructive disinformation, at least: he was vocal when consulting for Ferrari, and always had an opinion concerning which direction was the right one to go forward. Similarly, Eddie Irvine has never known what a gag is, let alone taken one, when it comes to speaking his mind. Whether next year's car is promising, or a potential disaster zone, he has always been prepared to drop hints as subtle as a bull in the proverbial china shop.

However, it turns out there's actually quite good reasons for the peace and quiet, on two fronts:

Jaguar's budget for 2002 is already secure, so any further advertising brought on board is a bonus. Scrambling to make the last five million to go testing is not an issue, whilst rash promises can only damage the brand's quality image, by failing to live up to expectations. With the winds of change blowing through Ford following Jac Nasser's precipitous departure, devaluing the brand in any way is not a good idea, especially as the resulting cuts would likely extend to the whole Formula One program, rather than the man at the top. Being seen failing to deliver would not be a good move.

However, even given that there is no current incentive to exaggerate the team's prospects, it would be quite normal for some idea of the work of the off season to come to light: and here, again, things are a bit different, because nobody really seems to know what next year's car is going to be like.

It will be a step forward, everyone is confident of that. Every area is going to see an improvement. Indeed, everyone is optimistic that the new chassis is going to evolve well, offering improved balance and grip. Certainly, the new engine is a good step forward - unofficial figures are claiming 850bhp by the time the European season starts. On the other hand, the rest of the field is going to be closing the gap to the front too, and it is hard to judge who is going to be making up what ground. Even more to the point, for the first time, the Jaguar team is going to be sharing their engine with another team, and Arrows are a team who, in recent years, have repeatedly managed a highly creditable season, despite tight budgets.

The purchase of the new wind tunnel couldn't have come soon enough - it's not an ideal arrangement, as the team can't get in to it until around the start of next season; however, it does offer a chance to work long and hard on evolving the aerodynamics through the season. In 2001, the chassis was basically well balanced, and carried one of the better engines available. Despite this, the car was slower than rivals, and the blame was placed on inferior aerodynamics.

Going into 2002, the aerodynamic evolution of the car is going the same route as last year. Lessons have been learned - improvements made through the season ably demonstrated the team had worked out most of the issues introduced with last year's design - but the underlying problem of working with remote facilities has not been overcome, and that clearly leaves room for doubt over next year's car. And that's really not the sort of news a Jaguar employee would want to be floating around Ford.

Renault Casting a Shadow

Benetton's final year in Formula One might not be anything to write home about, but it might - just might - presage a return to form for the outfit under its renamed guise of Renault.

There has been plenty of speculation about how it would come about. All that is known for sure, is that Renault left Formula One as a dominant manufacturer, and promised only to return when they could offer the same jump in performance on their arrival. The world has turned since then, and the company no longer has the image problem it had in '97.

That might sound a little strange: "dominant" and "winning" are not terms normally associated with an image problem! However, the company had built up such a strong reputation for having "the best" engine, winning for half a dozen years in succession, that the only way to go was downward: the inevitability of a fall from the top of the pyramid, prompted a strategic withdrawal.

Anyway, history lesson aside, Renault have been back for a year already, with little to show for it. Their engine program has been very publicly demonstrating how much effort would still be needed in order to provide a decent unit for the full return in 2002. At the start of the season, it became apparent that a "year of preparation" was on the agenda, and so it's proven.

So, the question being widely asked is, what "edge" has Renault discovered that could have prompted a return? Ever since their departure, rumours have circulated concerning their research, including such exotics as an adiabatic (air cooled) V6 unit, which would require virtually no cooling (reducing or removing radiators would provide a huge straight line advantage), a superbly powerful V12 design, and, amazingly, a W12 concept engine. At the same time, the technologies underpinning the potential alternative formats, including direct fuel injection, ultra high revolutions, and camshaft-less concepts, are supposed to have been examined.

Sadly, the FIA ban on exotic substances, and rule revision to enforce a V10 series, has put paid to most of those ideas, so even if Renault had been performing such research, there would be no viable way to implement it under the current regulations.

That said, there is more to their return than either the wide angle V10, or the challenge of running "a whole team." There is little doubt that the 2001 engine was not what it should have been: allegedly, the unit should have been using magnetically actuated valves, removing the need for a camshaft and a whole bundle of support hardware. It seems the new system was never reliable enough to go to the races, and a revised, cam-driven valve design was implemented until the bugs were ironed out, a process which the media at large believes delivered Benetton what should have been their 2001 starting point engine, to use for qualifying at the last event in Suzuka. Where, it should be recalled, Fisichella qualified sixth.

When Renault first announced their intention to return to the sport, there was little concern that they had discovered a way to make the wide-V engine work to their advantage; it was an excuse to leverage the marketing potential offered by the sport. Other manufacturers, despite competing in the mid-field, were demonstrating the marketing advantages, making the sport hard to ignore.

Since Suzuka, however, attitudes have changed: memories of a dominant Renault, 95 times winners from the 303 races they started, are returning. So, whether or not the returnee really has discovered a killer step forward, it is no surprise that the front runners are keeping a wary eye on their progress.