Renault F1 Technical Director, Mike Gascoyne, recently said that Renault should try to be on the podium at every track. But that he hoped to do even better at Monaco, Hungary and Suzuka.

Better than a podium, which Renault already has 3 in 6 races, is a win, something the Anglo-French team has not achieved yet this season.

With this aim the team is working hard in two fronts. In one side at the Enstone factory in the UK where new aerodynamic parts are being produced and tested in wind tunnel.

"Monaco is a circuit which requires maximum aerodynamic downforce," says Mike Gascoyne. "Of all the races on the calendar, this is the one where we will have the highest load, so we will be using extra wings. In this sense, any extra part is an advantage."

On the other front Renault is testing heavily at Paul Ricard this week. The Renault F1 team only has 20 days of private testing due to the Heathrow Agreement so each test is indeed quite important for them.

Allan McNish, Renault F1 official tester, completed yesterday 96 laps to the French track setting a best time of 1.13.062.

"We had a very useful day’s testing for what will be one of the most important race for us, the Monaco Grand Prix." Mike Gascoyne said. "We ran a substantially updated aerodynamic package, conducted some tyre evaluation and also worked on electronic systems. Tomorrow we will complete our programme with some long runs on one type of tyres which we think might be interesting for the upcoming race."

The Renault F1 team has lots of confidence on the upcoming Monaco GP, and this confidence can also be seen on the drivers.

Jarno Trulli, Renault F1 lead driver, was clear the other day when he said smiling:

"I have always been competitive at the Monaco Grand Prix, and our R23 should be comfortable there."

Fernando Alonso, that currently is placed 4th in the Drivers Championship, has also lots of hopes on the race at Montecarlo:

“All the pilots are going to be quite tense at Monaco. For Renault is one of the best tracks, so we have, at least, to be on the podium.” Alonso said on a radio interview recently. “The ideal for us will be to do only one pit-stop.”

Last time the Renault F1 team was so confident about a track that suited their car was in Barcelona. Mike Gascoyne clearly said that the team had a good chance to be on the podium at the Spanish track. Some days later Renault qualified 3rd and 4th on the grid on Saturday and Alonso finished 2nd in the race the following day. Only Schumacher in his brand new Ferrari2003-GA was able to beat the Spaniard.

The Monaco GP means usually an exciting qual session and a boring race. A boring race because overtaking in such a narrow street circuit is quite difficult and therefore teams strategies play an important role at this track. Obviously, it is easier to set the strategy at the front of the grid and that should be the aim of many teams.

In a recent interview for Autosport Online, Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello, is clear about the importance and the difficulty of this year qualifying at Monaco:

"Yeah, Monaco is going to be the most difficult one (qualifying session). I have no thoughts on it yet, but it's going to be interesting to see. People are going to do all sorts of things…" Rubens said. Thursday and Saturday are all about finding the limit."

For the drivers there are two key aspects. One is track time. To find the perfect lap at this difficult track you need to practice at it. And the teams that signed the Heathrow agreements are going to have their drivers 2 extra hours on track on Thursday. This is something that Trulli, Alonso, Webber, Pizzonia, Fisi, Firman, Verstappen and Wilson will benefit from.

The second is experience at the track. Fisi, Trulli and Verstappen have raced several years in an F1 car in here. For Alonso and Webber this will be the second time they race an F1 car in the streets of Monaco, though both have experiences in F3000. Pizzonia and Wilson are also two drivers that have raced in F3000.

With all this in mind, and with a Drivers Championship as close as this year’s, is going to be a quite interesting racing weekend. Many would say that Ferrari is the favourite. But the Italian team could not won here last year where David Coulthard was able to hold Schumacher on his tail. Do not bet against Ferrari though, the F2003-GA has won everything it has raced so far, and there is no indication that they will slow down in Monaco. Michael Shumacher has won there 5 times so he will be looking forward to a 6th win as much as he is fighting for a 6th world crown.

McLaren is another team with a good chance to win. They won as recently as in 2002 and 2000, both with Coulthard as driver. For Coulthard Monaco is his home GP. He lives in there as well as it owns one of the most prestigious Hotels.

Williams will be struggling at Monaco. Last year Montoya set the pole, however, Williams has not been able yet to sort the aerodynamic deficiencies of the FW25 and we doubt they will in time for this weekend.

The third and fourth winners at Monaco that will be on the grid this year are Olivier Panis and Heinz-Harald Frentzen, though, driving for Toyota and Sauber they have little chance to repeat their feat.

Good luck to all of them!