The tide is turning - Symonds

After the fly away races at Montreal and Indianapolis, the ING Renault F1 Team is looking forward to its home race at Magny-Cours this weekend. Pat Symonds, the Executive Director of Engineering of Renault, feels that the tide is turning for the French team.

"Well, the first thing to say is that the results don’t quite tell the full story, because some odd things happened to both teams, in both races. But in overall terms, yes, I think it’s indicative of the fact that the tide is turning, we are very close to BMW now and racing them hard."

"I think it’s since Monaco to be honest. Without a doubt, we have upped our game and pulled out of the midfield bunch we were in, to stand on top of it. And there’s still more to come."

"What a contrast from the start of his weekend in Canada, to the end of the race in Indy! After Friday and Saturday in Montreal, not much more could go wrong. But he then put in a great drive in Canada: he pulled up from the back, he was consistent, he pushed and challenged all the way. Then we got to Indy and he was strong all weekend, mentally and in terms of his driving. He used the equipment to the utmost, and even led the race, which we hadn’t anticipated!"

"Sometimes, it is very hard to be critical of the drivers. For all of us, our job is all about taking things to the limit. If you do that, occasionally you will overstep it. As engineers, our mistakes are not very public; as a driver, it absolutely is. Giancarlo made a mistake in America, and it was a great shame because he was on a very strong strategy. But after that spin, what a drive! He showed all of his good qualities, driving very quickly, consistently and with a good dose of aggression too."

"The first thing to say, and it’s an important point, is that the work is progressing. Of course, it is never fast enough - we all want to be leading championships and winning every race, and you’re never happy until you are doing so! But we take a lot of comfort from the fact that after a poor start to the year, we are pulling it back so rapidly. Other teams are not having a great season, and not pulling it back as we are. There is plenty to be proud of in what we are doing."

"I don’t think so, no. Our work has largely been focused on the aerodynamics of the car, in the wind tunnel. There has been some track work too, but the mileage restrictions haven’t limited us at all. We wholeheartedly support the testing limit because it’s simply so expensive to run these cars in testing, something like 200 euros per km."

"Magny-Cours is known as a very smooth circuit – although the new final chicane now gives the cars a severe pounding. It’s quite an aerodynamic circuit, with some good fast chicanes which need a responsive car. The challenge is very different to that of the low-medium downforce tracks in Canada and the USA. If you look back to circuits like Barcelona, we were struggling there at the time, but since then some very positive steps forward have been made. So I certainly believe our performance will be better, but we are still working on the car, still trying things, and hoping for a good race in France."

"There’s plenty of activity at the factory, that’s for sure. As we better understand the problems we have been suffering from, we are able to improve the car. There will be enhancements for France and Britain. And that’s in addition to continue the push with our normal development processes. There are a lot of new bits coming for the car, and you can be certain that we will keep on fighting."