Renault seeking North American boost

The French car manufacturer have consistently said that their current lead in the drivers' and constructors' world championship is not enough, but technical director Bob Bell thinks that if they can pull further of their rivals in Canada and the United States then it would all but secure them the title.

"This is the time of year when people make big choices about how hard to push their development processes to the end of the year, and if we can maintain that lead, then that may influence how they make their decisions," explained Bell.

"A strong North American campaign will bring a real psychological boost, and allow us to go to Magny-Cours on the offensive. We want to push home our advantage in the coming races."

Fernando Alonso is currently 23 points clear of Michael Schumacher in the drivers' championship, with Renault 31 points over Ferrari in the constructors' title chase.

Looking ahead to the two forthcoming races, Bell added: " There is no reason why we can't challenge for the win, and we will hope to maintain the championship gap to Ferrari. In fact, over the next two races we want to extend that lead slightly.

"If we can go past the halfway point in the championship with this kind of advantage, then it means our rivals have to not only replicate our performance in the first-half of the championship, but go even further. That won't be an easy thing to do."

World champion Alonso has reiterated that his Renault team will not be able to play it conservatively in the title chase this year because rivals Ferrari appear too strong.

While the Spaniard played the percentage game against Kimi Raikkonen last year, whose McLaren was quick but unreliable, Alonso believes that Ferrari's speed and reliability means that they cannot relax.

"Definitely not - the season is not even at the halfway stage yet, and in Ferrari, we have very strong competition," said Alonso on Monday. "Last year, we were fighting against teams who had reliability problems - but that won't happen with Ferrari.

"They will be there at every race, and very strong in Canada as well. So we are still attacking, still being aggressive, putting new parts on the car and trying to push the limits at every race. That's the only approach we can afford to take this season."

Ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, Alonso is well aware that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has not been too kind to his Renault team - with the French manufacturer having failed to get a car to the finish in the last two years.

"Canada was one of the races on my 'to-do' list at the start of the season," he explained. "I have never finished on the podium there, and that was one of my goals for 2006. So I will be really pushing to get a strong result there."

Bell added: "Yes, we want to put this race to bed - and score the result we should have had the past two years. In performance terms, we have been very quick in Montreal for a number of years now.

"We could have won both of the past races there, and even scored a one-two in 2005. So there's a very real sense of unfinished business for the whole team.

"Certainly, our package is more reliable this year than it was last. In 16 starts so far this season, we have had only one DNF, which is a very strong run. Canada is a very tough race mechanically speaking, because of the stop-start nature of the circuit. But I am confident that we will be OK from a reliability perspective."