Symonds: no complacency at Renault

Michael Schumacher scored his third win of the season at Indianapolis to reduce the gap to Fernando Alonso to 19 points with eight races remaining.

The seven-time world champion and teammate Felipe Massa completed Ferrari's first one-two of the season as Renault had to settle for third place with Giancarlo Fisichella.

Alonso was only fifth, although it was his best ever result at Indianapolis.

Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds has said the team will look closely at what happened in the United States.

"There is absolutely no complacency at Renault, and we will be studying what happened this weekend in significant detail," said Symonds. "But from being slower than us last week in Canada, Ferrari were suddenly exceptionally quick here this weekend - with essentially the same car and engine.

"We have said all year long that the balance of competition will shift race to race according to who finds the best solutions, particularly in adapting the tyres to the circuit and conditions.

"This weekend, our competitors did the better job - just as we have done with Michelin at most other circuits this year."

Symonds believes there is no reason to worry despite Ferrari's pace at Indianapolis, with both the Italian squad and Renault claiming the difference in performance at the US GP was a one-off.

"I think it is important to keep things in perspective," added Symonds. "Indianapolis is an unusual circuit with some unique characteristics. In 2005, we had our worst part of the championship in North America. This year, we are coming away with 25 points.

"We got beaten this weekend, and nobody in the team likes losing. But we are ready to fight. We have a very aggressive development programme in place for the coming races, and we hope to be much more competitive in France - a home race for both ourselves and Michelin.

"I expect normal service to be resumed in Magny-Cours, which means a tight, intriguing battle between ourselves, Ferrari and McLaren."