Renault is all ready for 3rd!

By role
March 31 2003

Mike Gascoyne and Flavio Briatore are quite optimistic of the future of Renault. Recent comments from both men give an idea of what Renault is expecting for the rest of the season.

Many insiders believe Renault's form will be hindered by their little testing between GPs due to their decision of conducting private tests on Fridays of the GP.

Team Boss Flavio Briatore disagrees:

"I believe if we are racing, doing two hours more in the morning, you have time to set up the car better and evaluate the tyres better and tyres are very important," said Briatore. "Then we still have 20 days testing. It's also good especially as Fernando is in the first year with us. The two hours every Friday morning makes a big difference to him. If everybody did this it would be so much better for F1. Maybe we should do Thursday as well. We're here already, the expenses, the hotels, are paid. I think testing should be banned and we should just do Thursday and Friday. For everybody it would be the same, I don't see the reason to run like mad and spend a lot of money for no reason."

His suggestion is unlikely to be followed by the big teams that conduct extensive and expensive testing at Barcelona, Valencia and Paul Ricard.

Mike Gascoyne, the Team's Technical Director is warning that the early form will continue and that new improvements are expected:

"We're looking to make a lot of progress in the near future, we have things in the pipeline that do make us very confident. A significant step is expected in time for the Monaco Grand Prix on June 1."

Renault's 2nd driver, Fernando Alonso, who finished 3rd on the last GP is thrilled of the performance of the car:

"Now we know we are in the running and I can compete with the best, I love it !"