Pat Symonds

While all eyes have been on Jenson Button and BAR in recent weeks, Renault's steady performance has gone largely unheralded. And yet Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli are joint fourth in the drivers' championship on 21 points apiece, and the team is a solid second in the constructors' version, 10 clear of BAR.

That is in part due to impressive reliability, for like Ferrari, Renault has propelled both drivers into the points in all five races so far this year. That's quite an achievement, not least because the team started the season with a completely new engine design.

The curious thing is that the drivers are still disappointed with the car. Last year's model was user friendly, but this year's chassis has proved unforgiving and difficult to tame on the limit. Despite the shortcomings the package was clearly very competitive in Spain, and the team was much happier than it had been in Imola. However, it seems that the problems have yet to be resolved.

"I think it was a little bit the nature of the circuit," says engineering boss Pat Symonds. "We were a little bit disappointed with Imola, but in a way it was one of our better Imola results of the last few years, in terms of how competitive we were. So I wasn't desperately disappointed with Imola.

"But Barcelona has traditionally been a good circuit for us, and even with the fact that we're not happy with the car at the moment, its good attributes made it pretty competitive. We made a couple of small improvements, but there's still a lot more that we want to do.

"We haven't got everything sorted out yet - far from it. It's nice to be second in the championship, but we're very, very aware that we need more performance out of the car. We do know exactly what we're chasing. But we haven't yet nailed it.

"When I look at the in-car stuff the BAR looks like a nice, easy car to drive. It's the exact opposite of the problem we're chasing at the moment. Our car is difficult to drive. Last year the 23 was a very forgiving car, and it's worth a lot. The performance is in our car, but it's quite difficult for the drivers to pull it out."

Renault's other weakness in recent times has been straightline speed, but that should never be taken at face value. Strategy can play an important part in how the figures stack up.

"At Barcelona you don't really need a lot of top speed. You can choose to run it a little bit how you wish. We decided to run quite a high downforce configuration, because it gets you through those last two corners very fast indeed. It looks after your tyres.

"The other guys may have a lot more straightline speed running lower downforce, but if they can't get behind us into the last two corners, they can't overtake us going into the first one. That was the philosophy we worked on, to try and protect the tyres and make the car easier to drive. I'm perfectly happy with the way it worked out."

Barcelona could be the race that sets Trulli in the right direction. For once everything went his way, and his confidence was boosted.

"He drove very well. We were under no illusions when he led the first stint. We're not naïve enough to think that Ferrari is not quicker than us! It was very nice to lead for a few laps. I was going to say I suspected they were quicker, but I knew damn well they were quicker than us."

Now it's on to Monaco, where Renault had high hopes last year, but came away with just fifth and sixth place. Nobody ahead retired and they still beat a McLaren and a Ferrari, but nevertheless, the drivers are hoping for something better.

"Monaco is a tricky place. You can form your opinions on how you might go at various circuits based on what you find in testing in similar types of circuits, but of course there's nowhere similar to Monaco. I'm reasonably happy with the traction and the torque of the engine, which is important. Jarno is very, very quick round Monaco, and it's very much a drivers' circuit."

With five races coming in the seven weekends after Monaco, there are many points to be gained by those who have their act together, and can still develop the cars despite the frantic schedule. Symonds is confident that Renault has useful improvements in the pipeline.

"Like always, we're working on new developments. Some of them are aimed specifically at this unpredictability of handling that we have, and some of them are aimed at outright performance. They come in race by race. I think over the last couple of years we've shown that our rate of development throughout the season has been the equal of anyone - if not better.

"I'll be disappointed if we don't continue to consolidate the position we've got now. The car has been very reliable, the team is working very well. We've had the quickest pit stops. I hope we can get closer to Ferrari. I'd like to think we can overtake them, but that's perhaps a little way off yet!"