Renault: Next Year will be Harder

Renault believe that they will have a harder time to defend their World Championships next year than they did to claim the crowns this season

That is the view of the French car manufacturer's Formula One chairman Patrick Faure, who thinks that the grid will be much more competitive in 2006 than it was this year.

"We have to do it again (win) next year, but it is not going to be easy," he told Autosport-Atlas. "I see some people around who are wanting to do a good season in 2006."

Faure is overjoyed at seeing Renault clinch the title double in Shanghai - just five years after the company returned to Formula One with their own team.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic," he explained. "It was our target and we reached it earlier than expected. It is really an enormous pleasure and a great satisfaction for all of us here to have won.

"It is a great success of the team, a success of Alonso, who is a fantastic driver really, and it is the success of the hundreds of thousands of Renault people in the world who are sharing this enormous pleasure and it is a great day in the history of the company."

And Faure believes that much of the team's success is due to the input of team boss Flavio Briatore, who some in the sport believed would struggle to deliver the team the World Championships they craved.

"Flavio proved to be the right choice for us. When we chose him to come with us, not everyone thought he was the right choice, but he has proved that he was the right choice and there was no other possible choice if we wanted to be World Champions."