Briatore 'embarrassed' by Renault success

On a weekend when tension off-track between Renault and closest rivals McLaren appeared to move up a notch, Briatore revelled on Sunday night at the manner in which Fernando Alonso dominated the chaotic Albert Park race.

"Today is fantastic for the team," Briatore told autosport.com. "We are so competitive it is really embarrassing.

"We are the best ones. It is as simple as that. There is nothing more than that. At the moment we are the best ones - with three races we have three victories.

"But I believe that what is more important is that we are very, very competitive and very, very strong."

Kimi Raikkonen had no answer for Alonso's race-winning pace in Melbourne, even though McLaren had gone into the race confident that their strategy was good enough to give them the edge over Renault.

And after riling their rivals on the track with three wins so far this year, Renault appear to be antagonizing their opposition off it too.

According to team insiders, the loud music that is played in Renault's pit garage upset next-door neighours McLaren enough for them to request that the team turn their stereo down because they could not concentrate on their work.

That request was declined by Renault, who apparently opted to turn the music up in an act of defiance.

Renault's refreshing attitude to winning appears to be having no impact on their performance on the track, with rivals scratching their heads about just what they need to do to catch the French manufacturer.

The team's former technical director Mike Gascoyne believes Renault may have the luxury of a half-second advantage over other teams at the moment.

"I think they are clearly a reasonable way ahead and Ron (Dennis) was boldly saying before the race they were going to run longer than everyone - and they were the first to stop, weren't they?

"I think Renault are clearly half a second a lap quicker than anyone else at the moment, so well done to them."

The only blot on Renault's Melbourne weekend was Giancarlo Fisichella's afternoon, after he stalled at the start and then suffered telemetry and clutch problems in the middle stages of the race.

And although his race engineer and Briatore were overheard on the radio ordering Fisichella to speed up during periods of the race, Briatore said afterwards he was encouraged by his Italian driver's recovery through the field.

"I push everybody all the time," Briatore explained the orders to Fisichella. "He had a problem and in the end he did the job. He finished in the points. He was pushing Jenson and, I don't know if we helped blow the (Honda) engine, but that is part of the game.

"I am not worried about anything. There is somebody else who needs to worry."