After walking through Renault's clinically immaculate race bays, where the team's chassis are taken apart, inspected and maintained, we head upstairs to be welcomed by our Ops Room guide, who also happens to be a familiar face.
Chris Dyer previously worked at Ferrari as race engineer to Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, and he now heads Renault's Vehicle Performance group.
Chris gives us the lowdown on how the Ops Room is an important tool for his specific department.
"Part of the responsibilities we have in the vehicle performance group is that we work very closely with the race team to develop the set-up of the car," explains the 50-year-old engineer.
"This works starts for us many weeks before the Grand Prix with simulation modelling work, and leading up to the Grand Prix we work together with the race team at the factory to make the decisions in terms of what set up we start with on the cars, what things we test during the weekend…
"That work doesn’t stop once the race team goes away to the track, we continue to support them through the weekend. And one of the most important tools we have to provide that support is the operations room or ‘ops room’."
When F1’s radically redesigned 2026 cars finally roll out in Barcelona at the end of…
Max Verstappen has never been one to sugar-coat reality – and as Formula 1 braces…
Ferrari have survived decades of criticism about strategy calls, driver politics and pit stops that…
While the paddock has been whispering for months that Mercedes might be holding the winning…
Dan Gurney passed away on this day in 2018, and here at F1i we'll never…
What began as a painful reminder of loss has ended with a moment of profound…