Renault not panicking despite Ferrari form

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher cruised to a dominant victory at Renault's home on Sunday to close the gap to Fernando Alonso to 17 points. Schumacher had also dominated the United States Grand Prix a fortnight ago, with Alonso coming home in a distant fifth.

But despite Ferrari's current form, Renault's head of trackside operations Denis Chevrier says the French squad have no reason to panic, and that Ferrari's wins are just the result of a close championship.

"It is a close fight between the two teams, as it has been all year and will continue to be," said Chevrier.

"There is no reason to panic - neither in terms of the championship situation, nor the technical status quo between the teams. Ferrari happen to have won two races in a row - but we dominated four in a row before that.

"There is no reason to think that the pendulum will not swing back in our favour in the coming weeks."

Chevrier admits, however, that being beaten at their home Grand Prix was disappointing. But the Frenchman reckons Alonso's second place was important to keep their advantage.

"We go to every race looking to win, so of course it's disappointing when you cannot," he added. "We felt we were very strongly placed after qualifying and that we would be able to make our consistency count in race conditions.

"But we are not over-dramatising things either: you have to finish second if you cannot win, and there is never a colossal difference between the two in terms of points.

"Strategically, it was an important second place."