NOVEMBER 14, 2006

A restructuring at Renault

This is the time of year at which F1 teams tend to revamp their structures and it seems that Renault F1 is reorganising itself slightly with the team's Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds taking on a slightly different role. Giancarlo Fisichella's race engineer Alan Permane will move up to the role of Chief Race Engineer and will oversee the running of both cars in 2007. Symonds will continue to attend all the races and will remain involved in engineering and race strategy but will have less of an operational role and will instead work more closely with team boss Flavio Briatore. It is not clear exactly what this will entail but Symonds will remain a respresentative of the team on the FIA Technical Working Group and the Open Cockpit Research Group. There will be further changes to the engineering structure but these have yet to be announced.

Over in France, there is an expanded role also for Denis Chevrier, the team's head of trackside engine operations as he will now be overseeing all engine operations for both Renault F1 and its new customer Red Bull Racing. Fabrice Lom is moving from his role as Fisichella's motor engineer to be the man in charge of the Red Bull Racing engine supply.

It is anticipated that some of the Renault test engineers will be given roles in the race team now that private testing has been significantly reduced. One man who may be seen more at races is Christian Silk, the head of test engineering, who was previously a race engineer with the team in the 1990s.