Renault's numbers after 8 races

The Renault F1 Team has had an incredible start to the 2006 season. The team cracked the 100 point barrier at Silverstone, and it has currently scored 106 points from 144 possible (a 74% success rate). That’s more points than we scored in the whole of the 2004 season!

What’s more, the number illustrates just how the team has raised its game compared to 2005: at the same stage last year, after 8 races, the team had just 76 points and a success rate of 52%. The Renault F1 Team currently enjoys a 31 point advantage over Ferrari in the constructors’ championship; last year, the lead over McLaren was just 13 points – but the team had just suffered double retirement in Montreal.

Fernando Alonso leads the drivers’ title chase with 74 points from 80 possible (a 92.5% success rate). The Spaniard has 15 points more than at the same stage last year, when his success rate was 74%. He had scored four race wins – this year it’s 5 – and had finished in second, third and fourth positions as well as retiring in Montreal. The gap to his closest rival Kimi Raikkonen was 22 points. After Silverstone in 2006, though, he leads Michael Schumacher (2nd) by 23 points and Kimi Raikkonen (3rd) by 41 points. Once again, he is out-performing last year.

Giancarlo Fisichella has also made a much stronger start to the year than in 2005. He now has 32 points and has retired just once, after a mechanical problem in Bahrain. In 2005, he had retired 5 times and scored just 17 points, only half as many as today! He was 10 points from third place in the championship last year; this time, he is fighting tooth and nail with Kimi Raikkonen.

It’s all systems go as the team prepares for North America – and two crucial races for the 2006 campaign!