Formula One news

Briatore doubts Renault title chances

Renault team principal Flavio Briatore has written off any chances the French team may have had of reclaiming Formula One titles in 2009. The Italian, firmly against the FIA's proposed €45m budget cap scheme for next year, has said that the performance of the Renault R29 is not up to the leading standards of teams such as Brawn or Red Bull.

The Renault team's best result of this season so far remains as two fifth places from Melbourne and Barcelona for Fernando Alonso although, after two Grand Prix wins towards the end of last year, both men anticipated more in 2009. "We are not happy at all," Briatore said in Istanbul. "We were expecting a different championship and we were expecting a much better performance from our car. For me, the championship is finished already; Brawn is very, very difficult to beat for anybody - maybe Red Bull have a good possibility to finish second and I think everybody else is fighting for the third and fourth places."

Briatore's comments reflect upon the controversial start to the season with the innovative double-diffusers of Brawn, Williams and Toyota eventually being declared legal by governing body the FIA. "Our team, I believe, approached the 2009 car in a totally different way and we expected to improve race-by-race if possible," Flavio continued.

"We never give up, we will try to improve the car, but everybody is trying to improve in the same way and that is the situation we are in; we need to still improve the car - we now have a chance in June and July to really, really push with this car but the situation is really difficult for us."

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