Fernando Alonso says he remains “absolutely” sure that Renault will make big improvements with its R29 as the season progresses following is disappointing start to 2009.
The former world champion driver and team went into the campaign optimistic of mounting another title challenge following a stunning end to last season, but like its perennial front-running rivals has struggled to match the early-season pacesetters.
Alonso, who scored an attrition-assisted fifth place in Australia before finishing outside the points in Malaysia, says Renault is working hard to improve both the performance and its understanding of its 2009 challenger and must now show that in China this weekend.
Asked if he was confident the team would improve the R29, he replied: “Absolutely.
“I believe in this team and we saw last year that they know how to fight back and find performance from the car,” Alonso said.
“It’s still very early days and everyone in the team is working hard to develop the R29 so that we can be more competitive in the next few races.”
“We need to take another step forward in Shanghai and hopefully score points.”
The Malaysian GP had already ended the Spaniard’s ambition of scoring points in every race this season, and left Renault in equal third place in the constructors’ standings, well behind pacesetters Brawn and Toyota.
Not capitalising on the mayhem in Malaysia was frustrating for the Spaniard, but he admits that the conditions made life tricky for everyone.
“I was disappointed not to score points in Malaysia, as my aim is to score points at every race this season,” he confirmed, “I made an amazing start and was up to third from ninth after the first couple of corners, which showed the clear benefit of our KERS system. However, I was heavy with fuel and it was difficult to defend my position from the cars behind me. Then it started to rain and I went off the circuit before I could change to wet tyres. After that it was all about being on the right tyres at the right time, but it wasn’t easy predicting how heavy the rain would be. It was definitely the right decision to stop the race.”
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