Dissapointment at Renault!

By role
June 14 2004

After a great start of the session, when the team only saw one retirement due to the accident in the tunnel of Fernando Alonso at Monaco, the Renault F1 team has experienced a double retirement at Canada.

It was particularly sour as Jarno Trulli could only complete 10 meters of the Canadian Grand Prix while Fernando Alonso had to retire when he was pushing hard Ralf Schumacher for second.

Alonso was fighting from behind after briefly leading the race due to a fuel rig failure on his first pit stop.

The Spaniard was just 2 seconds behind the BMW Williams driver when he experienced a driveshaft failure:

"The left driveshaft failed on the car - as I came down the straight I could feel the car pulling to one side, and I had to stop. The result is not good for the team in particular, but the car performed well during the first two stints of the race. The tyres were not quite as consistent as we had expected, but we were quick even so. I had a problem at the first stop when the fuel nozzle did not engage properly but even with that problem, we could have easily finished on the podium." Said Alonso.

Trulli was neither happy that he could not even complete a lap after a similar failure to the one experienced by Alonso saw him retire:

"My race was over as soon as it had started. I got a normal start, and then suddenly it felt like the rear suspension failed - perhaps because of a driveshaft failure. I pulled off straight away and that was it. Obviously, it's a big disappointment - Fernando showed today that we had the track position and the speed to win." Said Jarno Trulli.

Flavio Briatore was not a happy manager after seeing that the team could not capitalize in such a good grid position:

"This is a bad weekend for us. It was encouraging to see the cars perform well at this circuit, and we had the speed to race competitively against Ferrari today. But as we have seen already this season, reliability is the key to success. We hope not to repeat this." He said.

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineer, was also not pleased at the mechanical failures:

"It is a bitterly disappointing to suffer a double retirement after looking so good during practice, and having been confident of a podium finish. The indications we have so far are that both cars suffered similar transmission problems." Said the British Engineer.