Renault Strengthen Chances of Winning Future

Talk of Renault winning races next season sounds a lot less far-fetched after Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was again the headline-maker at Spa with a record 52nd career win but Renault-owned Benetton made people sit up and take notice.

The team that helped Schumacher to two of his four titles, in 1994 and 1995, celebrated their first podium in more than a year and turned their backs on months of under-achievement. Benetton become Renault next season and Patrick Faure, the French carmaker's motorsport director, was on hand to witness Giancarlo Fisichella take third place after briefly leading.

The revolutionary Renault engine, deemed too experimental by many when Benetton failed to outqualify even the Minardis, is clearly working.

"I think it's the result of a lot of work on the car and the engine," Faure said of Fisichella's podium finish. "We have made a big step forwards this time...maybe it was a bit later than expected but probably it was a bigger one than expected.

"Really now we are very happy, especially at a circuit like here which is very tough, to have been able to compete throughout the weekend with Ferrari and McLaren," he said.

Winning Record

Renault have a tremendous record in Formula One, winning races as a constructor and a fistful of titles with Williams in the 1990s. But they now want to win the Championship as a constructor as well as engine provider. They had promised big improvements for Magny Cours in July but their performances remained disappointing despite a surprising fourth and fifth places at Hockenheim last month.

"Now we have to confirm that progress in the next three Grands Prix, to be able to come back in 2002 with the Renault name and with good chances of winning races," said Faure. Next year's car will be further developed but with a very similar engine to this year's.

"It will be improved, it will have more power and be more reliable but with genuinely the same engine architecture as this year," said Faure. "And now we will see what the competition is going to do."

The car's performance also drew plaudits from engine-making rivals.

"That was really impressive, what they did today, apparently the whole package has made a big step forward," commented Mario Theissen, motorsport director of Williams' partners BMW. "I don't know how far it was related to the engine or the car, but altogether it was quite impressive."

Fisichella will not be at Renault next season as the Roman is joining Jordan in a switch with compatriot Jarno Trulli. But Faure was confident they had got the right Italian for 2002.

"I think Jarno is extremely quick but also he is somebody who will always be asking something from the team, and that's what we need if we want to be really efficient next year. We have not a target of being world champions next year but we want to try to win races next year."