Renault may hold back new engine

Fernando Alonso's victory in the Japanese Grand Prix, thanks to Michael Schumacher's engine failure, has left the Spaniard needing just one point to secure the drivers' championship. Renault need 10 points to guarantee themselves the constructors' title.

And although the team are well aware that they cannot take anything for granted after what has been a season of unexpected drama, the French car manufacturer will not take any unnecessary risks.

The key concern remains the engine, following Schumacher's problem at Suzuka and Alonso's failure at Monza, and that means Renault could stick with their current unit.

Nelson Piquet Jr. will evaluate the latest specification power unit at Silverstone testing this week and the team will then decide what they will do for Interlagos.

"We will see after testing this week about what we are going to do," said Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds. "We have been testing the latest E-spec for a while now, but we have also got another D-spec as well which we could use. So we will have to see."

And despite Schumacher conceding that his title bid was over, Symonds is not ready to sit back just yet.

When he was asked whether his team's huge advantage now left them relaxed for the season finale, Symonds said: "You may call it huge, but it is a statistical advantage. With a season like this who can tell."

Symonds does admit that the team can be more conservative at Interlagos as a result of the championship situation, but thinks it would be a mistake to back off too much.

"Your approach does change," he said. "It allows you to be slightly more conservative but I wouldn't say significantly.

"We said in our approach to this race that the best way to go for it is to try and go for two wins, but it is a little bit different now with Michael's retirement.

"We can be a little bit more conservative but not massively so."