Downtime is not an option: Renault Sport Formula One^TM Team chooses Roland for world-class motorsport

Renault F1^® Team unveiled the new livery for its racing car in February 2018: a slick black and yellow design with graphics printed with their Roland DG TrueVIS VG-640 wide format printer/cutter.

"We don't have downtime here. It's not an option."

Renault F1^® Team has relied on Roland DG for its racing car vehicle graphics for a number of years, using a Roland wide-format printer/cutter at its Technical Centre in Enstone, Oxfordshire, where its racing cars are designed and manufactured. The paint and graphics studio was on total lock-down ahead of the livery launch, with its staff sworn to secrecy over the design.

Print Precision for Brands

Renault F1^® Team’s cars will compete in 21 races around the world in this year's Grands Prix, with an audience of more than 400 million viewers. Brand exposure plays an important role in sponsorship programmes and it is essential that the livery is reproduced accurately. If any printed sticker gets damaged or dirty, the team will replace it immediately.

Joe McNamara, Head of Paint and Graphics at Renault F1^® Team, explains that, to make sure this is possible, racing cars always travel with a number of sticker sets, all printed on the Roland TrueVIS VG-640. 

"The team always carries 30 versions of every sticker so they can be replaced if needed. This amounts to around 1,400 stickers for every race," he says. "Eighty per cent of the stickers are sponsor-related so they have to be replaced with absolute precision."

Global Support from the Roland Family 

While normally Renault F1^® Team’s expertise makes this process go as smoothly as changing a tyre, Joe McNamara knows he has the backup of Roland users around the world who can print car decals quickly and accurately if need be.

"It's comforting to know that, if necessary, I can find a graphics company with a TrueVIS VG-640 that is local to the track, to whom I can email a file and all they need to do its hit 'play' at their end to produce perfect stickers," he comments. "I won't see a difference between their stickers and ours.

"We really are part of a Roland family, all over the world."

In addition to the TrueVIS VG-640, Renault F1^® Team studio have recently upgraded to a Roland CAMM-1 GR-640 wide format vinyl cutter. 

The team also uses four Roland MDX-540 milling machines to manufacture Rohacell® foam cores for some car parts that require this dense but very lightweight foam sheet material.

"The Roland MDX machines are known here as phenomenal workhorses, they just don't go wrong," says Joe. 

"In fact, every Roland machine we use is hugely reliable. The VG-640 is quick, accurate, easy to operate and easy to clean and the four MDX machines are simply bulletproof." 

The TrueVIS VG2-640 print and cut solution sets a new bar for the precision printing that your brand-conscious clients demand. If you want to see for yourself how it can achieve perfect results every time, click here to book a demo with a member of the Roland DG pit crew.

For more information about Renault F1^® Team, please visit www.renaultsport.com