MAY 27, 2002

Renault clarifies Monaco problems

RENAULT SPORT has issued a clarification about the problems with the electronic box on Jarno Trulli's car at Monaco on Sunday. The FIA will be visiting the team's Enstone factory on Tuesday to verify that the electronic box is in compliance with the regulations. Article 8.1.2 of the FIA Technical Regulations states that "all re-programmable microprocessors must have a mechanism that allows the FIA to accurately identify the software version loaded". This does not appear to have been the case for the team in Monaco and the systems must now be checked by FIA software engineers to ensure that the software used in Monaco matches the software which has been registered with the federation. If the two programs do not match Renault will be in trouble but Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering for the team says that they are "quite confident that everything will be clarified when we test the box on Tuesday at the factory."

The team added that it would have preferred to have had the checks done on Sunday night in Monaco but it seems that the FIA did not have all the information necessary to do the necessary cross-checking.