Confidents on US Grand Prix

By role
June 18 2004

The Renault F1 team has arrived to Indianapolis with high ho`pes for this weekend. After their good showing at the Canadian Grand Prix less than one week ago. Despite a double retirement Renault was able to show a great pace during the race.

Renault is now looking ahead to the US Grand Prix in the hopes of maintaining the pace and solve their reliability problems. The first time it had happened during the season.

Jarno Trulli is clear about Renault’s chances:

“Indianapolis is a special place to visit - it is famous as the home of one of the most important races in the world, and it has the same reputation as Monaco does for us in Europe.
"It is not a particularly technical circuit - it is very slippery, and downforce levels are quite low. In terms of set-up, we try and get good speeds down the main straight, and then work hard on the mechanical grip of the car in the slow corners to allow us to take off downforce for straight-line speed.
"We have to hope we stay competitive, as we were in Canada. Although I was disappointed to retire, we can feel the team has built up some momentum in recent races, and I hope we can continue that in the USA.
"The team was very strong last weekend, and in 2003, our package performed very well. This may turn out to be a nice circuit for us." He said.
Fernando Alonso’s aim to Improve his performances was met when he led during several laps at Canada and when he retired while running third just seconds behind second placed Ralf Schumacher:
"To be honest, we were quite surprised by our competitiveness in Canada, and that certainly makes us hopeful we can be strong in Indy.
"On paper, Indianapolis is not our best circuit, so we need to be cautious making predictions. However, the R23 was actually quite strong there last year, and as a team, we have been very strong in the last three or four races. So there is no reason to be optimistic.
"Our reliability this season has been excellent, and I think the failures in Montreal were probably more bad luck than anything else. I would expect things to be back to normal on that front for Indy.
"The circuit itself is strange - you have to find the right compromise between the two different halves. It has similar downforce levels to Canada, and we were very quick there. So maybe we can be as well in Indy. I'm looking forward to a good race.” He added.