Renault is pulling out the stops to steal second place in the constructors' championship from BAR Honda - new front and rear wings, a new lightweight chassis and Jacques Villeneuve.

Renault is pulling out the stops to steal second place in the constructors' championship from BAR Honda - new front and rear wings, a new lightweight chassis and Jacques Villeneuve.


The French team’s technical director, Bob Bell, said: "The new chassis is part of our on-going weight reduction programme aimed at optimising the car's performance, and the fact that we are introducing such major developments at this stage indicates how hard we are pushing to regain our position in the constructors' championship".


"We have had some reliability glitches (in the second half of the season), but also our fair share of bad luck and racing incidents. We did not expect to be as strong at Monza as Fernando (Alonso) proved to be, and are making good progress with the chassis and the engine”.


And, having been confirmed as Jarno Trulli’s replacement at

Renault for the final three races of the season, Villeneuve is relishing the chance to help Renault overtake his former team, BAR.


"It's the reason I've been hired and I'll do all I can for that," Villeneuve said.


The Canadian, who won the 1997 world championship with Renault-powered Williams, will not have raced for a year when he makes his comeback at Shanghai this week. However, none of the drivers on the Formula One grid have raced in Shanghai, which will level the playing field somewhat.


“There are two ways of looking at it: firstly, you can say that nobody else has been there before either so I won't be at a disadvantage, but on the other hand, you could say that you need as much experience as possible the car and the tyres in order to concentrate on learning the track. You can choose to be optimistic or negative. I'm looking at it in a positive frame of mind,” he added.


Villeneuve said he has put his split with BAR behind him and is focusing on the task ahead with Renault.


"The BAR episode ended in a negative manner and left me a bit bitter and that's not good memories to have," he said.

Original article from Car