Formula One news

Symonds - Renault car was better than McLaren

Renault's engineering director Pat Symonds says he is disappointed that McLaren have been applauded for apparently having the best car in 2005 when he believe's his own R25 was actually better.

Renault did win both titles, but the general feeling was that McLaren's car was faster for much of the year, just less reliable. Symonds claims that the Renault car was better, but its true pace was not shown for much of the year because the team took a conservative approach in the mid-season until it clinched the championship.

"I'm surprised people think that way," Symonds told Autosport about opinions that McLaren's car was btter. "We had a great start to the season and built a good lead. Strategically we then went quite conservative. Fernando showed it more and therefore a lot of people got the impression that McLaren was a lot faster than us and they would have won but for reliability - but that is not the way it was."

"Yes they were less reliable than us, but that's part of the strategy," he added. "Yes they were faster than us, but there were times when they appeared faster and the gap appeared more than it really was because we were being quite conservative."

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