Renault F1 Team has announced the start date for its new chassis technical director, Pat Fry, who starts ahead of the 2020 season in February.
Towards the end of the 2019 F1 season, it looked like Fry was put under gardening leave by McLaren, which could go upto May of 2020. In the meantime, Renault announced the hiring of Fry in November and confirmed the exit of Nick Chester in December.
It more or less made it clear that Fry would replace Chester after another difficult season for Renault, which could be attributed to the chassis side as they maintained that their power unit was strong enough, as both Red Bull Racing and McLaren showed.
Fry joins as new Technical Director in the chassis side, with Remi Taffin heading the engine department. The Brit will officially start on February 5, while he will also be present for the launch on February 12, as he forms part of major re-shuffle at Renault.
This will be a return of Fry to Enstone for the first time since starting his F1 career with Benetton in 1987. Since then, he has worked with McLaren (twice), Ferrari and Manor in several key roles, where he has helped the teams with his expertise.
Fry and Taffin will continue to report to Cyril Abiteboul and Marcin Budkowski. Along with the Brith, Renault had already confirmed the hiring of ex-Ferrari/Williams Dirk de Beer in their aero department with his deputy to be named still.
They also promoted James Rodgers to the Chief Aerodynamicist role from 2020 F1 season onward as Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon will look to make amends for the missed opportunities and help Renault to take on the bigger teams.
Here’s the news of Pat Fry joining Renault
Here’s Daniel Ricciardo on where team needs to improve
Here’s Daniel Ricciardo on his move to Renault
Here’s Daniel Ricciardo on his personal high and lows of F1 2019
Here’s Esteban Ocon on early advantage with Abu Dhabi run
Renault adds Piastri as new member, will race in F3 with Prema
