Gallery: Renault R25
Renault's new R25, which ran for the first time at Valencia in Spain this morning, may not appear to be as radical as some of the team's rival machines but the French manufacturer's design figures are upbeat about the work put into it
Although the new BAR and Sauber have sprouted radical wings and more aggressive design focuses, Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds claims that no stone has been left unturned in his outfit's build process.
And the highly respected engineering guru has hinted that Renault could have stolen the march on its opposition because it committed so early to the design process of the R25, even though some teams were uncertain about exactly what the 2005 technical regulations would be.
"It has been said that some teams did not know what was going on [with the rules], but I think that was a bit of wishful thinking from some people who did not like what was going on," Symonds told autosport.com.
"Because the rules were not cast in stone they thought maybe they were not going to happen, but I think Renault was a lot more pragmatic than that and felt that it was the way it was going to go.
"The rules are big changes but we have been working on them for a fair while - and I would say that by July last year we were pretty damn sure what the regulations were going to be."
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