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What were the requests of Renault? And
what has been the most exciting
challenge?
«The lap times to be achieved on-track and the
respect of the style constraints established by
the style center. These are two things that are
difficult to keep together by definition. Making
everything much more complicated was the
fact that the exterior of a race car would have
been developed jointly with the manufacturer,
a pretty unique thing in motorsport. The
Renault Style Center and our aero department
worked without compromises. The style needed
to have its key lines in place and the high
performance. It wasn't negotiable. Tied in
terms of the difficulty of the challenge, it was
the time available for the development. We
started from a clean sheet of paper during the
last week of February and the car made it on-
track during the last week of August. Only six
months passed between the idea and the
finished product. It seems incredible to tell but
we managed to turn the project».
What were the technologies used by
Dallara to develop the project?
«I would separate the technologies used to
develop the product from the ones used to
produce it. From the development point of
view we made massive use of 3D modelling,
and in this case it had a further evolution
intended to increase its importance in the
different phases of the product's development.
For example, during the assembly of the first
prototype, the digital mock-up, which was
directly available in the shop, was updated in
real time to face all the necessary
modifications. This way, the design and
assembly departments were always aligned
and consistent, which is a key goal for a
project developed in just 6 months. Then, more
fundamental instruments have been CFD
(Computational Fluid Dynamics) for the aero
and thermic development, and the intensive
use of the FEA (Finite Element Analysis) for
the virtual approval of every single
component. From the product's perspective, we
used several forms of composites: carbon fiber,
fiberglass, kevlar that dominate the scene of
the amount of technology used».
The car's design is quite interesting:
can you explain how the side design was
developed?
«The final aspect of the sides hasn't been
changed too much compared to the first