why have they been off the pace this year? alonso is gone for 1.

I've got this whole article about it in one of my Autosport issues. They said not even Alonso could save them, because the cars are not up to the standards of this year. getting the article now..where did I put that damn mag? As far as I can tell from other websites, the Renault team did not spec new race engines for 2007. That's kinda clumsy don't you think?

development has been frozen

http://f1chronicles.com/2007-formula-one-rule-changes/

why have they been off the pace this year? alonso is gone for 1.
They poured so much into the late development of last years car that they suffered in the development of this years. The trouble over the mass dampers had to effect something...