Everybody back at Enstone, including team manager Flavio Briatore and race drivers Fernando Alonso and Nelsinho Piquet, seem convinced that, hadn't been the rain in qualifying, the R29 should have been higher in the overall classification last weekend. Having qualified only 12th overall, Alonso had to deal with a lot of traffic in the early stages of the race, which eventually led to only 7th place at the end.
However, considering the incredible improvements brought to the 2009 challenger – Renault seem to be getting quite good at this late-season-surge game lately – Alonso is now very clear on his aims for the upcoming race, at the Hungaroring.
“The car felt good and from now on we can be closer to the podium. That's the goal. Two weeks ago no one would have thought we would end up harassing the Brawns or doing the fastest lap,” said Alonso in an interview with Spanish radio Cadena SER, while also revealing race wins are at sight for the closing stages of 2009.
“We could have finished higher if the rain had not hurt is in qualifying, because the (race) traffic hurt us a lot, and also our start. We have a problem there and we need to fix it before Hungary. But I must say we are happy; the car was the fastest of the grand prix with some extraordinary times,” added team boss Flavio Briatore, while also reckoning part of Renault's bad season was caused by the team's focusing too much on the under-performing Kinetic Energy Recovery System during the winter.
“We lost an incredible time with KERS. Now we have worked hard to modify the car and are in the right direction,” added the Italian, as reported by the GMM news agency.
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