Renault aims to beat BAR

BAR's Jenson Button and Takuma Sato have collected seven podiums between them so far, but Jarno Trulli won his first grand prix for Renault at Monaco. Since then the French team has endured three retirements in the last two grands prix at Montreal and Indianapolis. It is still second in the constructors' race however, eight points ahead of BAR. Meanwhile Button is third in the drivers' championship, three points clear of Trulli.

Heading into its home grand prix at Magny-Cours, Renault is introducing new aerodynamic developments to its R24 chassis and has another evolution of its V10 engine to try and swing the performance momentum back in its favour.

"For Magny-Cours and Silverstone, we will have a package of aerodynamic updates and we also intend to introduce suspension modifications at the French race," said Renault's technical director Bob Bell. "We are totally focused on maintaining second place in the championship. We must achieve consistent reliability again, and we certainly cannot afford to lose the opportunity of podium finishes.

"Obviously, there are circuits that we expect to run well at in the second half of the season, much as Monaco and Canada stood out in the first half, but we also have a programme of incremental performance gains planned. If we do not slip up, then I am convinced this team is capable of doing it. But it will be a close, tough battle."

Partly due to his retirement in Canada, Trulli failed to carry over the momentum from winning a race into the two midsummer flyaway events, but the Italian is convinced that more podium finishes are not far away. "My aim is to finish third in the drivers' championship," he said. "I believe we are doing very well, but we cannot forget that BAR are performing better than us in some areas, and at some circuits. We need to concentrate on getting the best from our car in the next few races and work very hard to improve our performance at the same time, if we want to keep this position at the end of the season. It would be a fantastic boost for me and the team to win the French GP."

It would be even more of a boost for team-mate Fernando Alonso, who after a stellar first season for Renault, has been somewhat overshadowed by Trulli this year.

"Overall, the season has been better than I had expected - but more in terms of our position in the constructor's championship than my own place in the drivers' standings," said Alonso. "It is a bit of a surprise for us to be second - McLaren and Williams have dropped down, but the performance of BAR has been a surprise. However, they are behind us now, although I think we can expect a very close battle through the summer.

"Personally, for me, I do not think it is too bad to be fifth: I have not finished three races, and started from the back in two of them. So I am reasonably pleased, but I expect to be much stronger in the second half of the year."