[Rodeo]

Never mind, I get it now ...

Renault and Michelin admit to mistakes
2/10/2006

Renault and Michelin have both admitted to making errors during Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, which cost Fernando Alonso the lead in the Drivers' Championship standings.

Although he started from pole position and dominated in the wetter first stint of the race, Alonso had to settle for second place behind Championship rival Michael Schumacher after first a Michelin and then a Renault error cost the Spaniard dearly.

With his front tyres wearing badly after the first stint of the race, Alonso pitted for new rubber and between his team and their tyre supplier a decision was made to put him on new intermediates. However, that proved to be the wrong call.

"The decision to switch Fernando Alonso to new intermediate tyres at his first stop was taken jointly by Renault and Michelin and obviously that cost him time while he waited for them to scrub in. With the benefit of hindsight that was a mistake, but in the heat of a race, split-second decisions have to be taken," said Nick Shorrock, Michelin's F1 director.

However, Michelin weren't the only ones to blame for that decision, as Pat Symonds, Renault's Executive Director of Engineering, admits the team also had a part to play in it.

"We are making no excuses today. This is a race we should have won, because the Renault and its Michelin tyres were dominant in all conditions," Symonds said.

"The fact we did not do so is intensely frustrating for the entire team. Fernando drove brilliantly from the start, and as we approached the first stop, told us on the radio that his front tyres were very badly worn.

"In consultation with Fernando and Michelin, we decided to change them - and leave the rears on. It soon became clear that the track was drying quickly, and that the decision had been the wrong one."

The disaster, though, was further compounded because as a result of the wrong tyre choice Renault "took the risk of stopping very early to switch Fernando to dry tyres - in the hope he would be able to gain time on the leaders," said Symonds. "A delay in that pit-stop cost us more time: we know that the nut fell out of the wheel gun, but not yet why."

However, according to Alonso, it didn't really matter than his second pit stop was bungled because the mistake made in the earlier pit stop had already cost him any chance of winning the race. "Looking back the best option was to leave the tyres," Alonso said. "But when you come into the pits and the front left is nearly slick, you change the tyre.

"We changed the fronts and that proved a bad thing to do. I thought we would have enough in hand, maybe slow for four or five laps. It took eight or nine to work the front tyres in. My race finished there."