Second and third positions on the grid, plus an unusual strategy: the Renault F1 Team had gambled in Turkey, and it was about to pay off. Here’s how.

At Istanbul, the Renault F1 Team employed a different approach compared to the start of the 2005 season: the team saw in free practice that the McLarens were going to be very competitive and decided to change its strategy.

“Our aim was to be quite high up the grid,” explains Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds. “We wanted to fight against the McLarens at the beginning of the race and then leave the pits after our second stop with a good gap over the other cars.”

After qualifying , the plan seemed to be working. Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso bagged second and third positions on the grid forming the meat in a McLaren sandwich. The silver cars were in first and fourth positions.

Pat Symonds outlined the strategy:

“With our cars running quite light, we ran the shortest first stint of the season,” he says. “In fact, we did the opposite of what we had done until that point of the season by going for a short-long-long strategy. Usually, the shortest stint was the last one.”

Here’s how it worked out…

At the start, Kimi Raikkonen led at the end of an action-packed opening lap, in front of Giancarlo and Fernando. On lap three, the Spanish driver overtook his team mate and stayed close to the leading McLaren. He headed for the pits on lap 13 with only a quarter of the total distance run. Giancarlo stopped on the following lap allowing Juan Pablo Montoya to take second position. The Colombian would stop on lap 21 and Kimi Raikkonen on lap 22.

After the first round of stops, the two McLarens were leading, with the Renaults third and fourth. The Renault F1 Team’s plan seemed to be working well.

“The early stop gave us the possibility to use a three stop strategy. We could wait until the end of the first stint before taking a decision,” Pat explains. “We decided not to take this option in the end and it worked very well.”

Fernando and Giancarlo stopped again on laps 34 and 36. The McLarens kept the lead after their second and final stops (laps 41 and 45), while Jenson Button left the pits behind Giancarlo at the end of lap 47. Things were working out exactly as planned by the team.

The Renault F1 Team was happy with 3rd and 4th… until an unexpected event saw their strategy pay off even better. Montoya collided with the Jordan of Monteiro and then ran off track a few corners later.

“Fernando was close enough to take the opportunity and pass the McLaren,” Pat says. “Moreover, Giancarlo finished ahead of Button despite problems during his pitstop. Knowing that Jenson looked quick enough to beat us on pure speed, this was a good performance.”

In the end, the team’s strategy was born out of unusual circumstances: a definite lack of speed during the weekend.

“We had to adapt,” Pat concludes. “It shows that the team knows how to react to unexpected situations. We managed to get a much better result than we would have done with a conventional strategy.”

The race proved to be very important in the fight for the title : Fernando Alonso gave away only two points to Kimi Raikkonen. The gap over the Finn was still 24 points and there were only five races left.

Renault