Renault’s engineers were given a short simple design brief with the R31, “be daring, try to innovate, take risks.” They have taken this to heart with the exhaust system design, during the very brief car reveal it quickly became clear that the car had no obvious exhaust outlets. Instead the rear bodywork is continuous aside from the exit duct for the gearbox oil cooler.
It is thought that the exhausts run forward from the engine bay and exit near the side pod inlets though there are no obvious apertures or heat shielding was evident at the launch they were revealed during the cars first runs. This is because the exhausts were blanked off by a triangular plate (see above), compare to the below with plate removed
(thanks to www.f1fanatic.co.uk for the image above and our web developerstinyrocketship)
Note the outlet behind the turning vale, the exhaust pipe is oval in section and split in two. A metal heat shield protects the carbon fibre floor ahead of the outlet, whilst a ceramic thermal barrier coating protects the areas to the rear. Heat management is critical in 2011 and no more so in the sidepods of the R31!
The exact benefit of this is unclear though Renault Technical Director James Allison did allude to it during the launch event. “It’s true to say that the car has been designed in an ambitious manner and a quick glance at the layout will confirm that its entire concept differs considerably, not just from last year’s car, but from any car this team has ever produced” explains Allison. “Those changes represent our attempt to extract the absolute maximum aerodynamic performance from the regulations, which have changed quite significantly for this year, and to further develop the concept of using the exhausts to blow the floor.”
A look at the RS27-2011 engine reveals a little more, with the four exhaust pipes merging into one as usual but this pipe the loops back and downwards. This is a significant departure from previous layouts, though where the gasses travel from there is yet to be established. It has been both hinted at and speculated that the gasses exit further forward than in any other design and possibly driving the car floor from much further ahead than is conventional. Allison is not letting on much yet but another team source added “the exhausts are not at the back, I’m not sure what can be said about them but you will only see them if you know where to look.”
Allison’s contribution added background information but few specifics “we set out to try ad to and conceive a car that wasn’t just smaller, lighter and stiffer, but one that would jump us up the grid. The guys up top said to us that they were ok with us taking some risks to have a go at something that was different that will hopefully bring us an advantage. The risk is that the layout of a Formula 1 car has been settled for some while, and its quite tricky to package all of the stuff you need into the space that is available. You make much of a change to that and you are in virgin territory, you find out as you go along what happens. We have gone with a layout that is different, different to last year, different to any year I can remember. It is one which I think has a lot of promise and it is one which I think is going to deliver what we want and I hope we have done enough basic engineering on it to keep it sensible and reliable.”
The R31 features a longer wheelbase compared to the R30
Update log
At Valencia the Renault team carried out quite a lot of flow visualisation work, using green dye on the surfaces of the R31. Much of the attention was focussed on the front wing and front suspension
Melbourne
Chassis: R31-03 (Petrov)
Chassis: R31-01 (Heidfeld)
A debut podium for Vitaly Petrov vindicated Renault’s radical car layout. The car had a mild update for the race, and the team spent a lot of time working with flow visualisation dye in practice. It is hard though to see what the ultimate pace of the car is, with ‘quick’ Nick Heidfeld still getting up to speed, a situation made worse by his car being badly torn up in turn one. The sidepod of his R31 ripped open, which must have badly slowed the car.
Sepang
Chassis: R31-03 (Petrov)
Chassis: R31-01 (Heidfeld)
Chassis: R31-04 (Heidfeld)
Renault went to Sepang full of hope, inspired by the Malaysian Ringgit’s flowing from the Lotus sponsorship of the team. The R31’s were even confusingly carrying the 1Malysia branding previously seen on the Team Lotus (aka 1Malaysia Racing) cars.
But the hopes were initially dashed after the R31’s were both hit with catastrophic upright failures. “Both Vitaly and Nick suffered failures under braking in the front uprights early in the first session” explains James Allison. “As a precaution we stopped running the cars until we had understood the problem. We quickly established that the two failed items had come from the same material batch and that nothing from this batch had run prior to today. It took a little longer to rule out other potential causes but once we were confident that the failures were related to a material problem we released the cars for the second half of afternoon practice where they ran without problem.”
Despite running in the second session in chassis R31-01 Heidfeld switched to the spare R31-04 for Saturday and Sunday. It may have been damaged following the upright failures.
In the race things went vastly better for Renault, with both cars running very strongly indeed. However Vitaly Petrov gave R31-03 a very hard impact after going off late in the race. The forces were enough to break the cars steering column. Heidfeld’s podium was the 100th for Renault in Formula 1, the first being Jean Pierre Jabouille in the 1979 French Grand Prix 
The R31 sported a new front wing at Sepang with a revised upper element and new endplates. Compare to the old spec version below.
The winglets inside the rear wheels have gained endplates following Melbourne.
Melbourne spec (above) and Malaysia (below)
Shanghai
Chassis: R31-01 (Petrov)
Chassis: R31-04 (Heidfeld)
After podium finishes in Australia and Malaysia, Renaul had to satisfy themselves with a lower key performance in Chaina, a ninth-place finish by Vitaly Petrov, with team-mate Nick Heidfeld down in 12th placing the team well off the leading pack.
Eric Boullier, Team Principal and Managing Director “Starting where we did, it was always going to be difficult to repet the results we have had already this season. In the end, it turned out to be quite a frustrating afternoon for us and we didn’t really make the progress we expected in the race. Part of the reason was that overtaking was not as easy as we thought it would be, even with the DRS. Also, we need to review our strategy because it wasn’t easy to make the calls today and it’s clear you need to switch tyres at exactly the right moment. Still, it’s good to pick up more points with Vitaly and we now have three weeks to regroup before Turkey to make sure we can be fighting closer to the front.”
Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer “It was a tricky day for us, which wasn’t helped by our poor qualifying yesterday, but ultimately we struggled for pace and both drivers found it quite difficult to overtake. Vitaly didn’t make a great start and he was stuck in traffic during his first stint. At that point we were thinking about whether to do two or three stops, but when he finally found some clean air his pace looked reasonable and we decided it was best to do two stops. However, he struggled for pace on the soft tyres during his middle stint. As for Nick, we chose to run the same tyre strategy as Vitaly, but he struggled with KERS overheating problems, which meant the system could only be used intermittently and made it even more difficult for him to come through the field.”
Chassis: Moulded carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb composite monocoque, manufactured by Lotus Renault GP and designed for maximum strength with minimum weight. RS27-2011 V8 engine installed as a fully-stressed member.
Front suspension: Carbon fibre top and bottom wishbones operate an inboard rocker via a pushrod system. This is connected to a torsion bar and damper units which are mounted inside the front of the monocoque. Aluminium uprights and OZ machined magnesium wheels.
Rear suspension: Carbon fibre top and bottom wishbones with pull rod operated torsion springs and transverse-mounted damper units mounted in the top of the gearbox casing. Aluminium uprights and OZ machined magnesium wheels.
Transmission: Seven-speed semi-automatic titanium gearbox with reverse gear. “Quickshift” system in operation to maximise speed of gearshifts.
Fuel system: Kevlar-reinforced rubber fuel cell by ATL.
Cooling system: Separate oil and water radiators located in the car’s sidepods and cooled using airflow from the car’s forward motion.
Electrical: MES-Microsoft Standard Electronic Control Unit.
Braking system: Carbon discs and pads, callipers by AP Racing, Master cylinders by AP racing and Brembo.
Cockpit: Removable driver’s seat made of anatomically formed carbon composite, with six-point harness seat belt by OMP Racing. Steering wheel integrates gear change, clutch paddles, and rear wing adjuster.
Car dimensions
Front track: 1450 mm
Rear track: 1400 mm
Overall length: 5100 mm
Overall height: 950 mm
Overall width: 1800 mm
Overall weight: 640 kg, with driver, cameras and ballast
KERS
Motor generator unit: Renault Sport F1/Magneti Marelli
Electronic control unit by Magneti-Marelli
Control Unit: Magneti-Marelli
Batteries: Not disclosed
RS27-2011 Engine Specifications
Capacity: 2400 cc
Architecture: 90° V8
Weight: 95 kg
Max rpm: 18,000 rpm
ECU: MES SECU
Fuel: TOTAL
Oil: Elf (a brand of TOTAL)
Battery: Lotus Renault GP
