Renault to Work 'Conservatively'

Engine failures for Kimi Raikkonen in practice for the French and British Grands Prix have helped Fernando Alonso to stretch out a 26-points advantage in the Drivers' Championship - and effectively mean McLaren now have to go all-out in attack if they are going to have a real chance of grabbing the title.

But Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds is comfortable with his team's situation - especially knowing that any risks that McLaren take could leave them exposed to further reliability problems.

"Compared to our rivals who need to catch up and inevitably take risks, from now on we can work conservatively," said Symonds in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport. "We know full well what attacking at all costs means because that's what we tried to do last year to resist BAR's attack to second place in the Constructors' Championship."

Renault lost the runner-up position in the Constructors' Championship last year to BAR after falling off the pace in the second-half of the year. Part of the reason for that, however, was that the team decided to shift a lot of focus towards their 2005 car.

When asked about whether he believed there were any differences between McLaren and Renault, Symonds said: "It's hard to tell the difference between our team and McLaren, because these are two winning teams which through time equipped themselves with well organized structures and adopt well-tested working methods.

"If I really must find some differences, then I'll say they are a bit more strict while we are a bit more imaginative and a bit more adventurous."

Alonso himself is confident that Renault's rate of development with their R25 is good enough to keep them on a par with McLaren - especially after performing so well at Silverstone last weekend.

"We've made some steps forwards by introducing new aerodynamic solutions, especially at the rear of the car, which was a bit of our Achilles' heel," said Alonso. "And this made us gain a bit more downforce.

"Our car seems to suffer cold conditions a bit, while as soon as the temperatures go up it goes at its best. At least that's what the season so far has suggested, as demonstrated by our victories in Malaysia and Bahrain."