E-Paper
Renault admit Ferrari are ahead
Formula One championship leaders Renault admit they no longer have the advantage over Ferrari despite winning a thrilling San Marino GP.
Formula One championship leaders Renault admit they no longer have the advantage over Ferrari despite winning a thrilling San Marino Grand Prix in Imola on Sunday.
Fernando Alonso held off the challenge of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari in the closing stages after the world champion had scorched his way through the field in one of the drives of his career.
He came from 13th on the grid to push Alonso all the way and although the Spanish driver had major problems with the engine in his Renault car the team admitted Ferrari would have been faster even if their car was perfect.
Renault technical chief Pat Symonds said: "The engine problem cost Fernando performance but to be honest it wasn't the gap in performance between us and Ferrari today, it wasn't that much.
"Fernando's engine was quite severely damaged in Bahrain and we had to use it here as part of the new rules. There was a lot of investigation went on about the effects of that sort of damage and we felt it would hold together.
"There was no certainty in it or anything but overall the risk assessment said leave it in but limit what we do with it. We limited the mileage, we limited the revs, and a few more subtle changes.
"But their car is obviously quick and it is always a combination, it is never one thing, everything has to work together, particularly to be more than a second-and-a-half quicker, it really does have to be everything."
Ferrari started the season on the back foot after choosing to run their F2004 machine in the opening races and they still failed to return to the front when they introduced the F2005 car for the third event in Bahrain.
Schumacher had finished only one race before heading to Ferrari's heartland of Imola but a massive testing programme put them back on track thanks in part to a stunning turn-around in the performance of their Bridgestone tyres.
Symonds said: "I keep saying not to judge things on the sample of one, but in the middle period of the race, when Michael was catching Jenson, he essentially had no tyre problems.
"He was going as fast as the fuel was coming out and everyone else was suffering tyre degradation so there is no doubt the Bridgestones were working very well here."
Symonds was quick to point out that Imola is a bit of an odd circuit and warned that Renault, who use Michelin tyres, should stretch their advantage again when they head to the next race in Barcelona.
He warned Ferrari not to celebrate their return to form too early after just one good performance.
"Barcelona is everything this place isn't, so I think after Barcelona we can make more of a judgement," he added.
