Spanish GP preview - Benetton-Renault.

Benetton-Renault head to Spain this weekend on the back of a truly dismal start to the 2001 season and at Barcelona this trend looks unlikely to change much to the frustration of all involved.

Mike Gascoyne, Benetton's Technical Director said: "Looking back at the first four races, the start of the season has been as difficult as we expected and to some extent the Spanish Grand Prix will be the same. One of the key features in this race is the introduction of new regulations on electronic systems which allow the use of traction and launch control. The Benetton-Renault team's primary focus has been to increase competitiveness and reliability and so testing with these systems has been limited but still productive."

"We have several minor aerodynamic improvements for Barcelona as part of our on going aero development programme. On the engine side we will be using the same specification of engines as in the San Marino Grand Prix. In the season so far, our race performance has undoubtedly been more competitive than qualifying and so this is one of our main areas of focus for improvement. Our starts have also been competitive and have allowed us to move up at the start of the race and now we must look to do this from higher grid positions. Overall the team's aim is to ensure reliability over the weekend and maximise the limited performance. Both drivers have been doing an excellent job to get the best out of the package and I am sure they will make the most of the aerodynamic improvements."

Pat Symonds, Benetton's Director of Engineering added in regard to the race: "The Barcelona circuit is used by most teams for the majority of the winter testing and therefore one would think it is well known by the teams. However, the nature of the circuit is such that it appears different every time you go there and indeed changes throughout any given day. This is largely because of the wind, which on the exposed circuit can lead to different handling characteristics on the car from morning to afternoon."

"It is a circuit where aerodynamic efficiency is of supreme importance as it has a very long straight and some challenging high speed corners and yet a number of slow second gear corners. The circuit itself is extremely abrasive and hard on the tyres particularly the left front tyre, which gets highly loaded through turn three and the final two corners. This means that the strategy employed in the race is very dependent on the suitability on the tyres. Although having said this, the circuit is so abrasive that it is unusual and unlikely that anyone will do less than two stops and indeed in the past a three-stop strategy has been employed in this race."

"Although the circuit has a very long straight, it is not a race where much overtaking will take place as it is very difficult to follow a car through the final two corners without losing down-force and therefore quite hard to get a tow and an overtaking opportunity into the first corner. The race this year sees the introduction of the new regulations governing the electronics and it will be very interesting to see how the teams will cope with the new freedom given to them in engine control, gearbox control, traction control and more sophisticated control of the differential. For this race even launch control is now allowed and some teams may well be using it so the start should be particularly exciting to watch."