Renault ditches wide-angle V10

Renault Sport's managing director Flavio Briatore also announced that the technical staff assigned to project has been restructured to oversee the design and build of the new engine as well as develop the current unit to the end of the season.

"I have appointed Bernard Dudot as deputy managing director," said Briatore. "Project manager Jean Philippe Mercier will continue the development of the 2003 engine whereas Leon Taillieu will be chief signer of the 2004 engine. The structure is based on the current technical management of Viry, who are all extremely competent and motivated Renault staff."

In effort to guarantee reliability, the new engine - type name RS24 - will have a 'traditional' architecture, but without any increase in weight. "It will have a high level of performance because it will profit significantly from the technological solutions that Viry Chatillon has developed over the past three years," said Briatore.

"Our objective is to design an engine that can respond to the demands of the new regulations, imposing one engine per race weekend, while at the same time maintaining our performance targets. Basically, this will be a high-performance engine, reliable for practice and the race."

The RS24 is expected to be ready to run by the end of mid-January 2004.

"The key part of our strategy is to achieve complete integration of chassis and engine," said Briatore. "The new engine will answer a precise brief and 'wish-list' from the Enstone (chassis design) team headed by Mike Gascoyne. The engine and chassis teams will develop the overall package step-by-step in total synergy. We have implanted at Enstone a small engine branch, Engine Development UK (ex-TWR), which will be managed by Viry Project Manager Pascal Tribotte."