From GMM

The Renault Formula 1 team has fended off suggestions that its 2008 car, the R28, could be tainted by the espionage scandals of last year.

Earlier this season, it emerged that the French squad delayed using a particular suspension innovation until very recently, following the scandal-surrounding engineer Phil Mackereth's defection from McLaren.

In the World Motor Sport Council hearings before Christmas about the Renault spy case, it was revealed that among Mackereth's McLaren drawings was a device referred to as a "J-damper".

It is suggested that the R28 raced by Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet now features similar technology.

"I don't know. What's a J-damper?" Renault's engineering chief, Pat Symonds, said at Montreal last weekend.

"If you can tell me what that is, I can tell you whether we've got one, I guess. It's not an engineering term.

"All I can say is that everything on our car has been checked by the FIA," the Briton added.

Symonds explained that, following the mass damper episode and banning of 2006, Renault now always gets FIA clearance before debuting any significant new technologies.

He said: "It is true that we ran new suspension components on the car in Barcelona and I can confirm that we checked very carefully with the FIA whether they felt that those suspension components infringed any technical regulations, sporting regulations or indeed the laws of the land."


Photo Credit : René Fagnan - Auto123.com