With the Renault F1 Team having completed the raw carbon monocoque for the R24 (see previous stories), ✱the time has come to make the final transformation and apply the ful🐻l race livery.

Next week will be an important sꦏtep for Renault, with the chassis departing to be painted. When it returns, it will sport, for the first time, its race colours.

The chassis are not pai🐎nted at Enstone, but 50 kilometres from the factory where a specialist suꦐpplier takes charge of this high-precision job.

"The monocoque is weighed as it leaves the factory," revealed Keith Dunsby, assistant composites ꦆmanager. "It is then collected, and returns two days later."

Naturally, painting of the chassis occurs in the utmost secrecy.ꦛ Apart from the five employees who work directly with the team, nobody is allowed access🎃 to the car.

"Furthermore, our partners are prepared to go to every length to ensure the quickest turnaround, to the extent of working through🐎 the night," he explained.

The first chassis will be given to Jon Woods, the team's head🐠 of graphics, to fine-tune the car's livery. The engi🔯ne cover and nose are required in addition to the chassis in order to lay out the full livery.

The car's lines are recreated using a🍃dhesive tape, with the aim of avoiding lack of continuity between different parts. This stage allows the team to take the measurements which are then used during the rest of the season.

"Afterwards, our objective is to paint the chassis for the minimum possible weight, firstly with a coat of white primer, then with the final colours," continued Dunsby. "By the end 🗹of the process, the monocoque shouldn't have gained any more than 500 grams extra. We check that carefully when it gets back to the factory, because weight is such a critical parameter in F1."

The paint 𓆉then dries in a𓃲n over, heated to 60?C. After cooling, the part then undergoes a polishing process several hours long.

"The finished article must have a perfectly smooth surface at the points where the colour changes," clarified Keith. "The tiniest superfluous m🐎illimetre can ruin part of the car's aerodynamic performance."

With the seven chassis๊ produced each season, bodywork, wings, developments and the stripping and re-painting of the chassis between rac꧃es, several hundred paints are painted each year.

Sometimes, even insignificant components need to lick of paint: parts produced in resin by stereolithography are ꩲpainted black in order to standardise their ✤appearance.

Finally, Dunsby's nightmare: stone chippings. "Some circuits are harsher than others for the paintwork," he smiled. "After taking so much care over the car's appearance, it almost breaks your heart to see all the small stones on the edge of the circ💫uit that chip the paint!"