Symonds: tyres to decide next races

Symonds reckons Renault and rivals Ferrari are closely matched at the moment, with only their Michelin and Bridgestone tyres giving one or the other the edge.

"I've been saying it for some time: Renault and Ferrari, performance-wise, are by now equal. The difference comes only from the efficiency of the tyres, in their levels of degradation and speed," Symonds told Autosprint.

"[In France] we maximized the result because, if we only look at laptimes, Massa too would have ended up in front of us. Thankfully at Ferrari they didn't change his car's strategy by going for a two-stopper, otherwise we would not have finished in second place."

Bridgestone seem to have stolen Michelin's march in recent races, with Michael Schumacher dominating both the United States and French Grands Prix.

Although Renault expected to fight for victory in their home race, Schumacher made that impossible, finishing clearly ahead of world champion Fernando Alonso.

Although Symonds admits that Ferrari were superior in Magny-Cours, he is adamant about his team's chances of fighting back in Germany next week.

"Performance-wise the gap against us was very wide," Symonds added. "It would have been different if we had used the latest engine development steps, but we didn't because they hadn't yet covered the minimum amount of kilometres in order to certify their reliability.

"This week in Jerez we'll do the 1,000 kms we still need, and by Hockenheim the engine will be in its completed evolutionary phase. However, it's not so much a matter of more horsepower, it's rather better driveability.

"On top of that we'll have an aerodynamic evolution, but Ferrari will have that too. Besides, time is short and the races are too close to each other in order to come up with the most extreme things.

"Last year against McLaren we won by completely going for reliability, but it's clear that is not enough against Ferrari this year. We must push beyond that, by going for laptime speed."