Q & A with Renault's Rob White

Q. Rob, the 2005 season presented you with a big challenge, with the extended two weekend engine life of around 1400km. How did you approach the problem?

Rob White - Renault's engine technical director: The rules changes were announced too late fundamentally affect our philosophy with the engine. The first 2005 engines were on the dyno when the definitive rules were published. To meet the demands of the new regulations, we had to review each component of the engine, conduct detailed risk analyses for each one. There was a lot of work to do.

Q. Which areas did you have to revise?

RW: The main components we had to modify were essentially the 'consumable' parts: things like valves, pistons or conrods. These parts had to last four times' longer than four years ago! To be completely sure they were capable of doing so, we had to impose some very strict quality controls. Our approval procedures include hundreds of processes on thousands of parts. We are always striving for perfect reliability.

Q. Is there a miracle solution in this area?

RW: No. Reliability is all about discipline. We tried to resolve every little uncertainty in the design, to be rigorous when it came to our approval and testing processes. Every performance step was accompanied by a precise study of its consequences for engine reliability. Our philosophy was never to build the best possible engine in isolation, but to produce the fastest, most reliable car. Those are two distinct things.

Q. The hunt for reliability must be a permanent source of frustration.

RW: Zero defect reliability is the only reasonable goal when it comes to fighting for a world title. We go to great lengths making both cars reliable, and to identifying and solving every little problem. However, the demands of the development process to improve performance, and the time/resource constraints we operate within, mean we can never be certain of achieving absolute reliability. In reality, you need to make difficult decisions at the factory and at the circuit, to adjust the balance in favour of one or other parameter. One of our strengths as a team is the ability to find the right compromise.