Renault surprised with second

Asked if he was surprised by Renault's position, Renault's chassis technical director Bob Bell said: "Yes. Our objective this season was to be third, but we realised very early on that we could gain a position on that initial goal."

The team has one of the best reliability records on the grids this year with just four retirements - an impressive stat beaten only by Ferrari and equaled by BAR. The latter is just eight points adrift of Renault in the point standings and Bell says the R24 is being developed all the time in order to keep its rival behind.

"Now we know what it feels like to be second, we want to make sure we stay there, but it is important that we manage the gap to BAR," he added. "Our team is capable of doing that, but we will need to work hard. Development programmes are in place to enable us to succeed."

The team's technical boss on the engine front, Rob White, believes the battle with BAR will resume for the rest of the season, but he's by no means discarding a comeback from Williams and McLaren.

"The expectation is that the battle between Renault and BAR will be very close until the end of the year," he said. "Of course, you can never count out Williams and McLaren taking points off us, and this fight will no doubt go down to the last race."

The worrying thing for Renault's rivals is that the R24 is less than perfect with Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli complaining of its difficult handling, but Bell insists the machine we see now is a significant improvement to what it was at the beginning of the year.

"The drivers still aren't as comfortable with this car as they were with the R23 last year," he said. "Significant progress has been made in this area, but the problem has not yet been completely solved, and a development programme is underway. We need to understand why the drivers cannot exploit the car at 100%, because it is important for the future."

The team expect to introduce significant developments over the next few races with a heavily revised chassis planned for the Hungarian Grand Prix in August.

"We are planning a major chassis update for Budapest, although we will not call it a 'B' spec," he said. "Other smaller changes will be introduced sooner, such as suspension developments in time for Magny-Cours. Of course, we will also use a specific low downforce package at Monza."