Benetton targets more points in Hungary
After a morale boosting double points finish in the German Grand Prix, Benetton's technical director Mike Gascoyne believes that Hungary will offer his squad an even better chance of success
Both Giancarlo Fisichella and Jenson Button finished in the top six at Hockenheim, which was only the team's second points haul of the season after Fisichella's sixth placed finish in Brazil. The Renault-powered team has struggled with a lack of aerodynamic development and problems with its radical 111-degree V10 engines, but Gascoyne is confident his team will be in good shape for the next race.
"We thought our best chance to get points in the second half of the season was Hungary," said Gascoyne. "We've got a load of new aero bits for Hungary which will address a lot of the high speed corner problems that we've had. We said it would get better in the second half of the year, and hopefully it is doing. Michelin are strong and that obviously helps us as well."
Gascoyne admits that his cars have been forced to sacrifice improvements in engine performance for the sake of reliability, especially in qualifying.
"They have been targeting the race engines with their best bits," he added. "They struggle with production, they don't have a lot of the latest bits, and they target them at races. So our best engines are always going into races. The engines that we have on Saturday [for qualifying] are always of a lesser spec - not power-wise but reliability-wise."
Despite its troubles so far, Gascoyne believes the team is pulling in the right direction and that the current problems are being addressed.
"I think Renault know how much work they've got to do, just as we know how much work we've got to do with the aerodynamics," he said. "It's all about hard work. We've been behind, which is why at the start of the year we said we're behind, don't expect too much."
For a full Mike Gascoyne Q&A, click HERE.
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