Alonso defends Renault's performance

Alonso grabbed the drivers' title, and Renault the constructors' title, despite rivals McLaren having a quicker car for much of the season.

But although there is no doubt that McLaren's title charge was hurt by a spate of engine failures and incidents, Alonso claims that it was the Woking-team's own fault in not ensuring they enjoyed the reliability that Renault worked hard for.

"People talked a lot about the speed of the McLaren team this year, and said that if they had not had bad reliability, it would have been much harder for me to win the title," he said. "I don't agree with that idea.

"A car's performance is a combination of two things; speed and reliability. At Enstone and Viry, our engineers started with the principle that to fight for the world title, you first and foremost needed to be able to finish on the podium at every race.

"Of course, we wanted a quick car, but we also knew we had to finish the races. Getting to the chequered flag is how you score points. And scoring points is how you win a championship."

Alonso believes that the seeds of Renault's title success were sewn in the winter of 2004 - when the team decided to design the car to make it as competitive as possible over the whole race weekend rather than just for qualifying or the race.

It is widely accepted that McLaren's form at the start of the season suffered because their car was not quick over a single qualifying lap. That left them too far down the grid to challenge for victories, despite having the fastest car in races.

Modifications were made to the suspension of the McLaren in time for the Spanish Grand Prix to help improve its single-lap pace.

And when McLaren had got on top of their speed issues, Alonso believes Renault's decision to put their rivals under pressure led to their increase in reliability problems

"By the end of the day, McLaren had a definite edge in speed," he added. "But we stayed calm and adopted a more aggressive strategy. It wasn't a question of limiting the damage, rather about putting pressure on our opponents.

"Pay Symonds (Renault's director of engineering) said that 'attack is the best form of defence' and he was right. For me, it wasn't about just cruising to collect points - or about taking stupid risks.

"I went to every race determined to try and win, but as soon as possible I looked after my equipment and made sure I got the good result.

"That fact is that the driver who wins the championship is the guy with the most points. Maybe we built up an advantage in the early races, but McLaren should have been ready from the first race. You win a championship over the entire season, not just half of it..."