Technical specifications R27

The ING Renault F1 Team presented their R27 today at Amsterdam. The car already made his track debut during a shakedown and tested at Jerez last week in an interim livery. Here are the technical specifications of the new R27.

Chassis: Moulded carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb composite monocoque, manufactured by the Renault F1 Team and designed for maximum strength and stiffness with minimum weight.
Engine installed as a fully-stressed member.
Front suspension Carbon fibre top and bottom wishbones operate an inboard rocker via a pushrod system. This is connected to a torsion bar and damper units which are mounted at the front of the monocoque
Rear suspension: Carbon fibre top and bottom wishbones operating vertically-mounted torsion bars and horizontally-mounted damper units mounted on the top of the gearbox casing.
Transmission: Seven-speed semi-automatic titanium gearbox with one reverse gear. Instantaneous gearchange system for maximum performance.
Fuel system: Kevlar-reinforced rubber fuel cell by ATL.
Cooling system: Separate oil and water radiators located in the car's sidepods and cooled using airflow from the car's forward motion
Electrical: Integrated Step 11 chassis/engine electronics and software co-developed by Renault F1 Team and Magneti Marelli.
Braking system: Carbon discs and pads (Hitco); calipers by AP Racing
Cockpit: Removable driver’s seat made of anatomically formed carbon composite, with six-point harness seat belt. Steering wheel integrates gear change and clutch paddles.

Car dimensions and weight

Front track: 1450 mm
Rear track: 1400 mm
Wheelbase: 3100 mm
Overall length: 4800 mm
Overall height: 950 mm
Overall width: 1800 mm
Overall weight: 605 kg, with driver, camera and ballast.

Principal Modifications

The R27 represents an aggressive evolution of the design philosophy that has won world championships for Renault in 2005 and 2006.

Stable chassis regulations mean performance gains are becoming increasingly difficult to find, and more radical solutions – such as the sidepod treatment of the R27 – are required.

The R27 will feature an instantaneous gearchange (IGC) gearbox for the first time. This technology has already been run by other teams, but will make its track debut in Melbourne. The unit has already completed thousands of kilometres of reliability running in a hybrid car, with promising results.

The R27 will be the first Renault F1 car to run on Bridgestone tyres. With the same specification of tyre available to all competitors, the onus is on the teams to exploit the tyres in the most effective manner possible. With this in mind, the R27 has been designed to be more adjustable in terms of weight distribution and other dynamic characteristics, in order to provide the trackside engineering teams with maximum flexibility in tuning the car.