Renault Can Win Races in 2003, Says Gascoyne

Renault can win Formula One races this season with a bit more engine power, according to technical director Mike Gascoyne.

"I think we can win races," Autosport magazine quoted him as saying today. "The chassis is good enough to win races. If we had the horsepower of the top three teams, we could definitely do that."

Renault left Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in third place overall under the new scoring system with six points after Italian Jarno Trulli finished fifth and Spaniard Fernando Alonso came seventh.

Autosport said that although the team refused to discuss engine figures, insiders had suggested that the Renault engine could be as much as 130 horsepower down on the BMW engine used by Williams. Gascoyne said the team were confident of improvement.

"There are a couple of things in the pipeline so in the next few races we should make progress," he said. "They've improved the reliability, so if they can work on the power we should be pretty competitive."