Renault Will Be Ferrari's Main Challenger In 03?

[F1Babe 0]

Borrowed from www.planetf1.com

THE Renault team are so confident that they can keep improving their car through 2002 that they see themselves as the likely challengers to Ferrari in 2003 and not Williams.

Jenson Button is convinced that it will be himself and Jarno Trulli, who will be rattling the cages of Messrs Barrichello and Schumacher in 2003.

"Occasionally we'll have the pace to fight with them and beat them," said the upbeat Brit.

Jenson has described the current R202 as "the most driveable" of all the F1 machinery he's had his hands on in his three seasons of F1. He maintains that the team are still on an upward graph from their disastrous start to 2001 when the cars were five seconds off the pace.

"The rate of progress isn't going to be like last year," said Jenson, "because we don't have as far to come, but there's a lot of interesting stuff coming."

"I think at the end of the season we'll be above Mclaren and very close to Williams. There's a good chance that we could get ahead of them next year."

Jenson seems very certain that he'll be at Renault come 2003. Maybe he's trying to tell us something:D

[eff1 0]

Jenson deserves to keep his ride for next year. Renault has the resources to reach the top. They certainly appear to be on to something with their wide-v engine. This scenario could very easily happen. It will depend on Williams' new chassis for '03, and how adventurous they get with the design, I suppose.

[nichosnz 0]

I sincerely hope that it does happen it will be good to see a different team up there challenging for the wins.

If McLaren pull themselves up and Toyota make it near the top within 3 years, like Jens has suggested.  Then the following year (2004) could be a very exciting one indeed.  Imagine Ferrari, Williams, McLaren, Renault, Toyota all challenging each other for wins, we could be in for another 1982.

[TotalF1 Jens 0]

Oh dear me I think this could maybe already happen at some point in 2003, around Magny-Cours or so. You never know what can happen over the preseason. Maybe Mercedes will pick up on the wide-V 111 degree engine from Renault and suddenly have a real horse of a power unit that will be up and above the strong Toyota's and BMW's. We can always trust Mr. Newey to create a great chassis, so why not? Mercedes has extensive resources, and maybe trying the 111 degree would suit them great!

It's all a guessing game until it happens, but I certainly cant wait for the time when it is Ferrari, Mclaren, Williams, Renault, Toyota, and others all racing for wins. Qualifying would be a tossing game for the pole, and the race would likely be magnificent because strategies between teams have become more and more similar over the years. Then into that five we can also throw in Honda for maybe late '03 or '04, because we know that they can design a good engine, as they have proved before. The Cosworth isn't exactly a lemon either. Which leaves Asiatech. Sorry Minardi!

Right now this is already happening for third place and on, but not many cars are challenging for P1 and P2.

[nichosnz 0]

The 12 team rule that was introduced after the Lola fiasco, means that once we get up to 12, any team that is bought out is probably going to become a better package.

This will make it (unlikely but) conceavable that in a decade to 15 years, we may actually have 2/3 of the teams fighting for victory at any given race, and all of them at some point over the season.  That has never happened before though, so if it's getting that way I'm sure the FIA will step in and do somthing about it.