Renault team principal Eric Boullier is confident the outfit’s ‘risky’ exhaust system will pay off when the season begins.
The media were puzzled by the apparent lack of exhausts on the R31 when it was launched in the Valencia pit-lane. Since then, it has become clear that the exhausts are routed to the front of the sidepods, exiting onto the underfloor of the car.
The Frenchman was coy about revealing too much about the unique feature, opting to leave it to their competitors to figure out.
“I’m not going to talk too much about it, I will let our competitors find out by themselves,” Boullier told ESPNF1. “Yes, we have decided to go a little bit brave in this design and this area to make the car a bit different.”
When he was asked whether the approach was risky, he replied: “Of course. We have to be. If you are too conservative you will stay at the back of the queue and we do not want to spend our time copying the others. If you want to be at the front you have to be creative and you also need to bring this creativeness in the team spirit.
“You need to reassure people by saying: ‘Let’s try something that you believe strongly will perform. Let’s try it and if it doesn’t work we will back you up’. That’s a big change because then people can take some risks.”
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