The Renault R30 was a Formula One motor racing car designed and built by Renault for the season. The car was driven by Robert Kubica and rookie Vitaly Petrov. Test drivers were Ho-Pin Tung, Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Jan Charouz.
It was unveiled on January 31, 2010, at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia.[1]
The chassis was designed by James Allison, Naoki Tokunaga, Tim Densham, Martin Tolliday, Jarrod Murphy, Mike Elliott and Dirk de Beer with Rob White leading the engine design.
At the, Renault introduced the F-duct on the R30,[2] having been postponed since Silverstone due to inefficiency.[3]
It was immediately obvious that the R30 was more competitive than the R29. Robert Kubica enjoyed a string of strong finishes early in the year and Renault established themselves as the main rivals of Mercedes for 4th in the Constructor's Championship. However, Renault had to settle for 5th by season's end but Kubica's and Vitaly Petrov's double-points-finish in the final race of the year capped off what was an encouraging season for the team which struggled so sorely in 2009.
After the loss of sponsorship with the Dutch banking group ING Group, the car returns to the historic yellow-black livery, used (with some variations) by Renault in Formula 1 up to the RE60 in the 1985 season. The profiles of the spoilers are instead red, hosting the sponsorship of the oil company Total.
The car never presented a title sponsor: in the pre-season tests the livery actually appeared very bare of third-party brands: the only partnership of any importance was the one with the Dutch watchmaker TW Steel, whose logo stood out on the nose and above the radiator openings. Close to the start of the championship, a two-year collaboration agreement was signed with the IT industry HP (whose brand appeared on the fin of the bonnet), while the entry into the share capital of the Genii investment fund team Capital led to the affixing of the relevant logo on the front suspension arms. The presence of the second driver Petrov therefore conveyed the Lada brand, applied to the sides of the front section of the car, while on the sides of the bellies the DIAC logo appeared, a Renault group company specialized in credit for the purchase of motor vehicles.
During the season, the Banka brands SNORAS (which replaced DIAC), EFG International, TrinaSolar and MOVIT also made their entry.
The tyre manufacturer Pirelli used the R30 chassis in 2012–2013 as a test car in tyre development replacing the Toyota TF109. The car was tested by Jaime Alguersuari and Lucas di Grassi at several European racetracks, including Jerez, Spa, Monza and Barcelona.
Kimi Räikkönen drove an R30 in Lotus E20 colors in a private test in Valencia on 23 and 24 January 2012.[4]
Vladimir Putin drove the R30 on a circuit around the Russian city of Saint Petersburg around November 2010.[5]
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Points | WCC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renault F1 Team | Renault RS27 V8 | BHR | AUS | MAL | CHN | ESP | MON | TUR | CAN | EUR | GBR | GER | HUN | BEL | ITA | SIN | JPN | KOR | BRA | ABU | 163 | 5th | |||
 Robert Kubica | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 5 | Ret | 7 | Ret | 3 | 8 | 7 | Ret | 5 | 9 | 5 | ||||||
 Vitaly Petrov | Ret | Ret | Ret | 7 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 14 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 13 | 11 | Ret | Ret | 16 | 6 |