"Their book of excuses has come to the last page"Flavio Briatore is predicting a difficult season for Renault's main F1 rivals; McLaren Mercedes and Ferrari.
Despite his French squad's loss of back to back World Champion
Fernando Alonso to McLaren, 56-year-old Briatore
said the team should nonetheless expect a "tough" 2007.
The Mercedes-powered team rarely failed to win a single Grand Prix with
Kimi Raikkonen at the wheel this year, and Briatore doubts that his former protégé Alonso is a silver bullet.
The Italian told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "(McLaren) always have fantastic drivers, but this year their book of excuses has come to the last page."
Raikkonen, meanwhile, has moved to Ferrari, but Briatore questioned whether the Finn will be an adequate plug for the huge hole left by
Michael Schumacher and the similarly departed technical director Ross Brawn.
"Ferrari without Schumacher and Brawn will be less competitive," he predicted. "That's normal when you lose people like them."
Source GMM
