The Renault F1 team became the fourth team to unveil their new 2010 car, launching the impressive-looking R30 in Valencia, showing off the car's new retro black-and-yellow livery. They also confirmed Vitaly Petrov as their second driver.
The car is easily the best looking of the cars launched so far, though it does have some issues. Namely the 'shark fin' on the engine cover, and the slightly jarring red endplates on both the front and rear wings.
But compared to the other horrorshows, the car still manages to be the looker of the 2010 grid so far.
The French team also confirmed, as expected, the signing of well-backed GP2 driver Vitaly Petrov alongside Robert Kubica for 2010.
Petrov becomes the first ever Russian Formula 1 driver, and his signing means that all three of the top drivers from the 2009 GP2 Series, Nick Hulkenburg, Petrov and Lucas di Grassi, have graduated to Formula One in 2010.
The car also reveals the main reason for the team signing Petrov, namely the lack of major sponsors. The team lost the backing of ING and a number of other sponsors following the Spygate case in 2009.
Speaking at the launch at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, where testing gets underway tomorrow, new Renault team boss Eric Boullier said that 2010 represented a "new era" for the Renault team, which was taken over by Luxembourg-based businessman Gerard Lopez over the winter.
"The start of a new Formula 1 season is always a time of great anticipation," Boullier mugged, "For Renault, this is particularly true of the 2010 season as we begin a new era for the team.
"With a new structure in place, new drivers, and new colours, there is a lot to be excited about and a lot to look forward to in the year ahead."
He added that the objectives for 2010 were modest, with the final target of getting Renault back to the front of the grid likely to take time, but that the car's "aggressive development" should allow them to at least be competitive.
"Setting objectives is never easy, but it's clear that we have high ambitions for 2010 as we aim to take Renault back to the front of the grid," the Frenchman explained, "However, this is not going to happen overnight and our ambition is to make this journey one step at a time.
"The R30 should be a competitive, strong and reliable car and we've opted for an aggressive development strategy. The factories in Enstone and Viry have been working flat-out during the long winter months to ensure that we begin the new season in the best shape possible.
"These factories have been successful in the past and they haven't forgotten how to win in Formula 1."
Meanwhile, Bob Bell, the Renault managing director who stood in as team principal at the end of 2009 after Flavio Briatore left the team, said that he was confident that the team had made enough improvements to the car compared to last season to start the season competitively.
"The issues we had with the R29 were fundamentally aerodynamic as we lacked overall downforce compared with our competitors," Bell muttered, "We're well aware that we need to make up the deficit that we had to our competitors at the end of last year, but so far we've been hitting, and often exceeding, our targets in the wind tunnel.
"I'm optimistic therefore that the R30 can be quick out of the box so that we won't have to spend another year playing catch up."
He added that the "upper midfield" was the target for the team at the start of the season, and that podium finishes in 2010 would help the team mount a championship challenge in 2011.
"We definitely have a better feel for where our competitors are performance-wise compared with the start of 2009 when everyone was starting with a clean sheet of paper," he explained, "So in that sense it's easier to set targets and we believe that we should be aiming to compete in the upper midfield when the season begins.
"We know we have the resources for a strong development capability during the year and the upgrades to the wind tunnel should help us find rapid gains. If all that comes together, we can be hopeful of ending the season challenging for podiums and ready to stage a championship challenge in 2011."
New signing Petrov said that he always had faith that he would secure on F1 seat in 2010, and that he was looking forward to making his F1 driving debut at the Valencia test.
"For me it was a very long winter and I felt rather nervous when I saw other drivers' contracts signed one after another," the rich Russian revealed, "But I always believed that one day it would by my turn, and now, thanks to the Renault F1 Team, this finally became a reality.
"When I first drove a Formula Renault 2.0 car back in 2003, I couldn't imagine that one day I would drive for Renault in Formula One so this really is a dream come true. Now I just can't wait to sit in the cockpit and do my very first lap in a Formula One car. I'm sure it will feel fantastic."
Finally, Robert Kubica, the team's lead driver, said that his hope was that the R30 was an easy to drive car, but said that it would be difficult to judge their overall aims for the season until the racing got underway and the pecking order was revealed.
"When I was with Sauber in 2008, I remember the car did not meet our expectations at the start of the year, but within a month we had turned things around and I took pole position in Bahrain," the Pole said, "So things can change very quickly, which is why it's hard to say what my objectives are. My only hope is that the car is easy to drive because the new rules will favour cars that are not too sensitive – we need a car that behaves consistently in a wide range of conditions."
Gravity Sports management pair Ho-Pin Tung and Jerome D'Ambrosio were confirmed as Renault's reserve drivers for 2010, along with Jan Charouz, the Czech sportscar racer.
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