Rob White: It was because of Michael they won!

Quite confident!
By role
April 26 2004

Engine Technical Director, Rob White, was quite pleased to see both R24 finish without any kind of problems to their engines. Both Alonso and Trulli finished the race at Imola and both drivers had to fight quite hard until the end in order to finihs 4th and 5th.

The team has shown to be quite competitive during the last four races and the engine to be quite reliable under the toughest of conditions. renault is, together with ferrari, the only team to have finished with both cars in all races in point scoring positions what has kept the Anglo French team on the second position in the Constructor's Championship.

This race the engine had been upgraded to give about 20 bhp extra. white was quite happy to see them both finish without a glinch:

"I am very pleased with the performance of our engine throughout the weekend," he said. "We didn't have a single problem in three days of running, and once again got both cars to the finish. What's more, the performance gain was significant."

"From a general point of view, I think it's good to see that we can be competitive with Ferrari," said Rob. "It was only with Michael Schumacher at the wheel that they won that race. That's a good sign. From our point of view, we got the strategy absolutely right and the drivers both did a good job. We need to continue in that vein."

Next up is the Spanish Grand Prix. A track that suits quite well the R24 and where engine power is not as key as the San Marino Grand Prix:

"We know the track (at Barcelona) like the back of our hands, and know that the car runs well there. What's more, we will have some more improvements to the engine in order to adapt the V10 to the characteristics of Barcelona. Once again, our priority will be total reliability." He concluded.