Alonso engine failure gives Renault headache

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Fernando Alonso's engine failure in Barcelona has presented Renault with concerns heading into the Turkish Grand Prix, engineering chief Pat Symonds has admitted.

Alonso, who gave the team their best starting position of the season after qualifying second on the grid, was forced out of the race on lap 35 when his engine failed while running in fifth.

Symonds, Renault's executive director of engineering, said on the team's podcast that the failure was a "surprise".

"While at this stage we know what the failure was, we don't have all the explanations as to why that component failed," Symonds said.

"It's one of the areas where the engine is always on the limit... but not an area where we've had failures in this particular engine."

Symonds said "any lack of understanding" about the failure was a concern.

"When you get something go wrong in an area where you don't normally have problems it's generally due to a little manufacturing error or something like that which has slipped through the net.

"Of course I'm worried, because we don't know, but I suspect our worries will be alleviated by the time we get to Turkey."

The team had stripped the engine and it was being worked on ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix.

However, Symonds said he was pleased with the performance of the developments added to the car for Spain.

"The performance updates were perhaps more obvious in Barcelona than usual, and one of the reasons for this is that of course we've been working very hard to improve the competitiveness of the car.

"I'm pleased to say most of the stuff we had on the car was successful. Obviously there were some very obvious aerodynamic updates -- the engine cover being the most obvious, front wheel area, barge boards, things like that."

He believed the changes augured well for the future performance of Renault's cars.

"I do think all of our new developments are transferable to Turkey and indeed there are a couple more reasonable ones coming along for Turkey, again both on the aerodynamic side. Hopefully it will pull us a little bit further out of that mid-field mire we have been in this year.

"It's unfulfilled potential, isn't it? I'd rather have unfulfilled potential than no potential. But I'd rather have fulfilled potential so let's work on that for Turkey."

Steve Nielsen, Renault's sporting manager, said Alonso's appearance on the front row in Barcelona had given the team a boost. "It's nice to be competitive. We went to Barcelona with greater expectations -- it's proof we have moved forward." E-mail to a friend

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