The strategy? Keep on pushing

This morning’s edition of French sport daily L’Equipe carried the following headline: “Has Renault stolen a march on its rivals?” After an excellent start to the 2006 F1 season, which has seen the French team take 28 points from a possible 36 (a scoring rate of 78%) and, moreover, which saw Fernando Alonso’s brand-new RS26 V8 engine (number 3873, for the record) take 18 points from a possible 20 (a 90% scoring record), it’s a logical question: have the world champions opened up a decisive gap to the competition?

A first indication comes from a comparison of the championship tables: last year, after taking two races wins and one third place (for a total of 26 points) in the opening two races, Renault had a 16 point advantage over Ferrari, and 17 over McLaren. In 2006, in spite of a higher points total after the opening rounds, the advantage is less – just a 13 point lead over its two closest pursuers. The message is subtle, but clear: there’s more competition for points in 2006.

After Sunday’s historic one-two finish in Malaysia, the Renault F1 Team’s Executive Director of Engineering, Pat Symonds was under no illusions that although the performance of the R26 had been impressive, events in the race had helped Giancarlo and Fernando on their way to achieving the result.

“The race hit all our predictions, but there were some factors that made it easier too. The first was that that Fernando eradicated much of his qualifying disadvantage in the opening corner, as he went from seventh to third. And secondly, Raikkonen’s first-lap retirement removed one of the major threats to our success. Nobody in the team is resting on their laurels, and we know we have a fight on our hands.”

The weekend in Malaysia was also something of a reckoning for the engine builders of Formula 1. The second weekend of the new V8’s lifecycle was also one of the toughest of the season, with the high temperatures and severe demands of Sepang leaving little margin for error. Alone among the top teams, Renault got two cars to the finish, without any engine problems throughout the weekend.

“We were all frustrated by Giancarlo’s retirement in Bahrain,” explained Engine Technical Director Rob White. “But also reassured, because we knew it was because of an accessory component, and not something fundamental with the engine. To win the first race of the 2006 season was a great source of satisfaction, and to follow that up with a one-two is a dream result.”

But a successful start is not an achievement in itself – merely a platform to be built on, and Rob White doesn’t hesitate to reinforce it. “Being reliable in F1 is not enough, you need to be quick and reliable. Our work on reliability is never finished, and we are still aiming for zero-defect performance. We don’t have a big advantage over our rivals. We will be working to get the maximum from our package in the coming races and we are well prepared. But so are some of our rivals, and even those who are less so, are still very quick. There’s no room for complacency.”

The message is clear: keep on pushing. Beginning today, at Le Castellet, with three days of testing for Heikki Kovalainen aboard chassis R26-04. As they begin working on the next steps of a championship challenge…