Giancarlo Fisichella has backed speculation that Renault should build a ‘B’ version of its 2007 car.
After finishing more than a minute behind the winner in Australia, the Roman told the Italian magazine Autosprint that making “radical” changes might be the only way to “save” the reigning champions’ season.
“We should build a whole new front suspension and modify the chassis, but even that would take a lot of time,” Fisichella, 34, said.
“In order to save our season, it’s better to make radical changes and solve the whole problem than limp slowly forward.”
The disappointed Italian veteran rejected theories that Renault has dropped back simply because Fernando Alonso is no longer in a cockpit by insisting that the R27 is the “weakest” car he has driven for the team since rejoining in 2005.
Referring to Melbourne, Fisichella admitted: “It was a shock to see how big an advantage Ferrari and McLaren had over us.
“It was 1.6 seconds to Kimi Raikkonen and half a second to McLaren. You obviously can’t accept that.”
Despite some new parts for the Malaysian GP next weekend, Fisichella – who will not test this week at Sepang – is not predicting a short-term return to form for the Enstone based squad.
“There isn’t much to do about it,” he said.
“No matter how much we improve, Ferrari will be a long way ahead of us for several races.”
