Gascoyne Predicts Competitive Race for Renault

The Renault team are confident of completing another strong performance at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, the eighth round of the 2002 season.

"We are expecting another strong performance in Montreal," said Mike Gascoyne, the team's technical director. "A car needs to change direction well in the chicanes and handle over the bumps, as well as being stable under heavy braking.

"We are good in all those areas, and Montreal has traditionally been a strong circuit for the team."

The French squad have been quite impressive so far this year, but a number of reliability problems have seen their performances go unrewarded in some races. Renault are currently fourth in the Constructors' Championship with 11 points.

Italian Jarno Trulli was finally capable of scoring his first points of the year with a fourth place at the Monaco Grand Prix eight days ago, giving the team a boost of confidence ahead of the Canadian race.

Gascoyne says Renault are currently as competitive as they had expected before the start of the year, but is hoping they can solve their problems with reliability to be able to shine even more.

"So far, we are where we hoped to be at the start of the year," he added. "Every time we have finished, we have run very competitively and scored points. The problem is that we have also missed a number of good opportunities: we now need to pin down our reliability issues in order to realise our full potential."