The Renault R24 is a

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

car that competed in the

2004 Formula One season The 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 58th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It was the 55th FIA Formula One World Championship, and was contested over eighteen races from 7 March to 24 October 2004. The championship was ...

Design and development

The chassis was designed by Mike Gascoyne, Bob Bell, Tim Densham and Dino Toso with

Pat Symonds Patrick Bruce Reith Symonds (born 11 June 1953) is a British motor racing engineer. He was the Chief Technical Officer at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, from 2013 until 2016 having previously worked at the Benetton, Renault and Virgin Formula ...

overseeing the design and production of the car as executive director of Engineering and

Bernard Dudot Bernard Dudot () (born 30 January 1939) is a French engineer who was instrumental in the development of the turbo V6 and normally aspirated V10 engines of Formula One while working for Alpine and Renault. , he is Head of Engineering of the GP2 ...

leading the engine design.

R24B

Renault brought a new updated R24B model to San Marino Grand Prix, featuring new cylinder heads, inlet system and related changes to the bottom part of the engine.

Racing history

It was a car that showed speed and reliability during the season, managing to outpace both the Williams and McLaren, as well as proving to be a consistent challenger to the equally fast BAR Hondas of

Jenson Button Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super G ...

and

Takuma Sato , nicknamed "Taku", is a Japanese professional racing driver. Sato is a two time winner of the Indianapolis 500, having won the event in 2017 and 2020. He was the first Asian driver to win the Indianapolis 500, and the twentieth driver to win th ...

. However, it was routinely bested by the

Ferrari F2004 The F2004 is a highly successful Formula One racing car that was used by Ferrari for the 2004 Formula One season. The chassis was designed by Rory Byrne, Ignazio Lunetta, Aldo Costa, Marco Fainello, John Iley and James Allison with Ross Brawn ...

Michael Schumacher Michael Schumacher (; ; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Lewis ...

Rubens Barrichello Rubens "Rubinho" Gonçalves Barrichello (, ; born 23 May 1972) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who competed in Formula One between and . He currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No. 111 T ...

, as the Ferrari duo won 15 of the 18 races in 2004. The driver line-up was

Jarno Trulli Jarno Trulli (; born 13 July 1974) is an Italian racing driver. He regularly competed in Formula One from 1997 to 2011, driving for Minardi, Prost, Jordan, Renault, Toyota, Lotus Racing and Team Lotus. His best result in the World Drivers' Cham ...

and Fernando Alonso. The team became real contenders for second place in the Constructors' Championship. Trulli won the Monaco Grand Prix. However, his relationship with Renault (particularly with team principal and Trulli's ex-manager Flavio Briatore) deteriorated after he was consistently off the pace in the latter half of the year, and made claims of favouritism in the team towards Alonso (though the two teammates themselves remained friendly). Commentators regularly point to the

French Grand Prix The French Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de France), formerly known as the Grand Prix de l'ACF (Automobile Club de France), is an auto race held as part of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's annual Formula One World Championsh ...

as the final straw for Briatore, where Trulli was overtaken by

in the final stages of the last lap, costing Renault a double podium finish at their home Grand Prix. Trulli was later fired after failing to score points in 5 successive races. After that, he announced that he was joining

Toyota F1 Panasonic Toyota Racing was a Formula One team owned by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota Motor Corporation and based in Cologne, Germany. Toyota announced their plans to participate in Formula One in 1999, and after extensive testi ...

for the following year and in fact left Renault early, driving the Toyota in the last two races of the 2004 season. Hoping to secure second place in the Constructors' Championship, Renault replaced Trulli with World Champion

Jacques Villeneuve Jacques Joseph Charles Villeneuve ( born 9 April 1971) is a Canadian professional racing driver and amateur musician who won the 1997 Formula One World Championship with Williams. In addition to Formula One (F1) he has competed in various o ...

for the final three races. However, Villeneuve — away from F1 racing for almost an entire season and struggling to acclimatise quickly to racing at the premier level — did not impress, and the team finished third behind Villeneuve's former team

BAR Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

with 105 points. Renault used 'Mild Seven' logos, except at the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

, French and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Grands Prix.

Use in ''Top Gear''

The R24 was "loaned" to

The Stig The Stig is a character from the British motoring television show '' Top Gear''. Created by former ''Top Gear'' presenter Jeremy Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman, the character is a play on the anonymity of racing drivers' full-face helmets, ...

for an episode of ''

Top Gear Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...

''. Renault claimed it would go around the Top Gear Test Track in less than one minute; the R24 got around in 59.0 seconds.Top Gear Series 5, Episode 8 2004.12.19 - Renault R24 Formula One car segment. It was later revealed by Renault that the R24 was drove not by the regular Stig, but rather their test driver

Heikki Kovalainen Heikki Johannes Kovalainen (; born 19 October 1981) is a Finnish racing driver competing in the Japan Rally Championship for Rally Team AICELLO. He raced in Formula One between 2007 and 2013 for the Renault, McLaren, Team Lotus, Caterham and ...

, disguised as the Stig.

Complete Formula One results

( key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

References

{{F1 cars 2004 R24 2004 Formula One season cars