Symonds 'excited' by close title battle

Ferrari had the quickest car at Istanbul, but a badly timed safety car period and an off-track excursion left Schumacher unable to overhaul his championship rival.

Ahead of the resumption of testing at Monza in Italy this week, Symonds thinks there is now nothing to choose between the two teams with only four races left to go.

"I feel a sense of excitement," said Symonds, when asked by autosport.com about his feelings after the Turkish race. "It was a great race and the circumstances are what they are.

"I am really pleased with the result. It is pretty much as simple as that. It is still really close and we always said it was going to be close. It is what racing should be."

Although Ferrari appear to have the edge in terms of out-and-out pace, Renault are hoping that tyre developments, car improvements and a new specification engine due to be tried out at Monza will help lift their pace in time for the Italian Grand Prix.

"I am trying to give up predicting these races now, it is so difficult," explained Symonds about the final races of the year.

"I am really pleased that we are getting some testing in now. It has been a struggle in the last few weeks, in particular with the mass damper coming off the car, so it would be nice to do that.

"Michelin have got a hell of a programme next week so there is a lot to do there, and when we have finished the programme then we will know where we stand. I think it is going to be close at all the races."

Renault readily admit that the banning of mass dampers in Formula One have cost them pace - although they hope that they recover some of that speed over the next few weeks.

When asked where he believes Renault would have been if they had run the mass damper in Turkey, Symonds jokingly responded: "Prison."

• An exclusive interview with Pat Symonds, about the the mass dampers affair, the championship battle, and more - will appear in the Weekly Journal, on Wednesday night