Thursday, September 10, 2009

ALONSO GEARING UP FOR CHANGE OF LUCK

Fernando Alonso is hoping to see his luck change this weekend for a Renault team currently racing under a cloud.

The Anglo/French marque face an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council in 12 days' time over race-fixing allegations relating to last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

If found guilty of urging then driver Nelson Piquet to crash - and so help Alonso win the race - Renault could potentially be kicked out of this year's championship.

Before that crucial date, all within the team are staying silent as they attempt to make the Italian Grand Prix weekend as normal as possible.

For double world champion Alonso, the Spaniard can only hope for an improvement on a season which has yielded just 16 points - the 28-year-old failing to score in half of the 12 races to date.

Alonso, forced to retire in the last race in Belgium because of an issue with his left-front tyre, said: "It was very frustrating, because we missed another good opportunity to fight for a podium and score important points.

"It's true we were missing pace in qualifying. But the car was more competitive in the race, and things were looking good until my first pit-stop when it became clear that the car was damaged.

"I now hope my luck will change in Monza, because we have a competitive car, but we haven't been able to show the true potential so far.

"We saw how quick it was at the Nurburgring, Budapest and Valencia. But for various reasons, we haven't scored the points we should have.

"However, I always look forward, try to stay positive - and I will approach the rest of the season believing we can finish the year strongly.

"At least we know we have a car that is fast enough to get close to the podium, which will be my aim this weekend in Monza."

Alonso's target will be assisted by the fact Renault have decided to re-introduce KERS for this race, given Monza is a power circuit where the boost system should prove significantly beneficial.

Explaining the logic behind their decision, Renault director of engineering Pat Symonds said: "There are three aspects of KERS that need to be considered - lap time, the advantage it gives from the start and the ability to assist overtaking.

"Firstly, the gain in lap time of running KERS in Monza is likely to be around a quarter-of-a-second, and it's worth even more in qualifying because you can do one release before you start a timed lap and another release during the timed lap.

"In terms of the advantage at the start, it's a long way from the grid to the first corner in Monza, and KERS will give an advantage of well over 15 metres compared with non-KERS cars.

"For assisting overtaking, you have to remember Monza is a circuit where it's very difficult to overtake. But running KERS certainly won't disadvantage us in that respect.

"All these factors combine to make Monza a very favourable circuit for KERS."

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