• Italian Grand Prix

Allison wants further Renault gains

James Allison says the updated R31 is competitive in all conditions © Sutton Images

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• Italian Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Teams:
• Renault

Technical director James Allison says that he hopes Renault will be able to show further signs of improvement with its upgrades at the Italian Grand Prix.

Renault took a heavily updated R31 to Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix and were more competitive than in previous races, with Bruno Senna and Vitaly Petrov both qualifying in the top ten and Petrov picking up two points. Allison said that there would be new bodywork as well as the usual low downforce specification at Monza and that he hoped it would see the team move closer to the front with only one further update planned this season.

"Like everyone, we will have a low downforce package," Allison told the Official Renault website. "We will also bring upgraded bodywork, which hopefully will help us build on the gains we made at Spa... We have an upgrade package to deliver for Monza and then one more at Singapore. After that it will reduce to a trickle as we focus all of our efforts on next year."

When asked about the correlation between downforce and drag, Allison explained that the top teams may have cars with a third more downforce than those at the back of the grid.

"It is impossible to produce downforce without producing drag, but the job of the aerodynamicists is to produce as much downforce, for as little drag, as possible. At a given circuit, all the cars on the grid tend to set their drag levels to very similar values (by altering the rear wing angle). However, at this same drag level, the front of the grid may have more than 30% extra downforce compared to those at the back of the grid."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.