Renault V8 engine on target

The French squad, winners of the both the drivers' and the constructors' titles in 2005, have not yet tested their new unit on track while rivals like Mercedes, Ferrari or Toyota have already put a lot of miles in their new units.

White is not under-estimating Renault's rivals, but claims the French team's philosophy is different and is confident the engine will be ready for the first race of the season.

"Our goal is to arrive well prepared at the first race of the 2006 season, and at the moment we are on target to do so," said White.

"We have planned the project in a prudent, pragmatic way, balancing the needs of the teams at Enstone and Viry, as well as the as well as the imperative to maintain performance until the final race of 2005, with the necessity of not over-stretching our resources.

"Some rivals are already running a V8 engine on track, and we are not under-estimating their performance, nor in any way over-estimating our own. But we do not know what constraints they are operating under, or how their development philosophy compares to our own.

"We are confident we have the correct answer for our team, and are looking forward to running our representative RS26 V8 engine, in a representative R26 chassis, early in the New Year."