What's at stake for Renault at China?

Everybody’s eyes are on the spectacular Shanghai International Circuit and the Renault-Ferrari battle this weekend. The Italian Grand Prix proved to be an eventful, emotional weekend. The teams haven’t spent the two and a half weeks since then with their feet up. Everybody has been hard at work testing ahead of the final leg of the 2006 world championship.

The Renault F1 Team chose to run in Jerez and Silverstone to prepare the R26; it also provided the opportunity for one of the team’s newest recruits, Nelsinho Piquet, to conduct his first test for the team. The young Brazilian topped the times on two of the three days, and made an encouraging start.

In terms of preparations for Shanghai, tyres were selected by Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella in Jerez, while simultaneously testing new developments for the car. Michelin are optimistic that they have continued to make progress: in particular, results confirmed their improvement in first lap performance that had made a decisive difference in Monza.

As for Ferrari, they have also promised updates to the 248, notably in terms of suspension and aerodynamics. The design offices in Enstone, Viry and Maranello have been hard at work preparing for this final push.

Looking at the championship picture, it changed significantly in Monza. On the drivers’ front, Fernando Alonso is still leading – but only by the wafer-thin margin of two points over Michael Schumacher. The Spaniard’s engine failure in Monza, his first in two years, allowed the German to take a ten-point bite out of his lead.

On the constructors’ side, Ferrari has nosed in front of the Renault F1 Team by just three points. Everybody’s eyes will be on these two teams this weekend and from this point on, every practice lap and qualifying performance will be all the more important.

Down the pit-lane at McLaren, they will also be eager to secure their first win of the year in one of these last three races. Kimi Raikkonen was fighting for victory in Monaco and Budapest before retiring, while in Monza he sat on pole position – but was unable to fight Schumacher’s Ferrari in the race. The Finn may prove the joker in the pack that can disrupt the title fight.

And who else? The Hondas may once again look to qualify well and fight for the podium. They do not have the race pace to win, but they can have a major impact on the outcome of a race in the opening laps. BMW should also be watched closely. Kubica’s Monza podium was down to pace, not luck, and it followed on from Heidfeld’s similar performance in Budapest. The team is progressing quickly, and had already knocked Toyota off P5 in the constructors’ championship.

So how can we sum it all up? It’s clear there’s plenty to fight for in this first race of the ‘trilogy’. Keep your eyes on the track because the action is about to hot up!