Ecclestone Tips Renault for the Title

Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso have each taken a win in Renault's R25 and, with Ferrari appearing to be on the backfoot, Ecclestone believes he has seen enough to know which way the title fight will go in 2005.

"Judging from the first signs I cannot see any reason why Renault shouldn't do it," he told The Sunday Mirror. "I hope Renault are ready to beat Ferrari and take the title from Michael Schumacher. We haven't seen the full picture yet but the results point to an end to the Ferrari era.

"Ferrari were only so dominant in the past, because the other teams worked so badly - unbelievably badly. Fortunately, Renault and Mercedes seem to have really caught up. It would be marvellous if they could give Ferrari a hard time now."

Ecclestone has even suggested that he would prefer to see Fisichella beat Alonso to the world title this year - but only because of his nationality.

"It would be simply super if Fisichella could beat Michael to the title. An Italian beating Ferrari!"