JANUARY 24, 2007

The thoughts of Bob Bell

Renault's chassis technical director Bob Bell was in front of the microphones at the team launch in Amsterdam and as usual was full of interesting reflections on the sport.

Bell said that the loss of Fernando Alonso has not made any real impact on the design process at Renault F1.

"We do not design cars to suit particular drivers," he said. "That would be crazy."

While admitting that the team has lost some good people in recent months he said that he did not believe that this would have any effect on the overall performance of the team.

"One of our great strengths is the ability to fill roles using our own people," he said. "Our first preference is always to fill a position with someone from within and we have a good track record of that."

Bell also reckons that Fridays will become much more interesting this year.

"Because testing is now very restricted, the Friday sessions will be important, particularly in understanding how the tyres work. I think we will see much more running this year with the race drivers - which is good for the sport."