Renault admits a subdued start to the season

Renault's head of engineering Pat Symmonds admitted that the car's performance in the first races had not satisfied him. The French team started 2009 with great ambitions after a crescendo of the 2008 season, highlighted by Fernando Alonso's two victories in Singapore and Japan. Instead, the R29's performance fell short of expectations, having only scored five points in the first four races. Symmonds underlined that he would have expected a more convincing start to the season. “I'm dissatisfied with this start,” he said.

“We were all well aware of the difficulty of assembling the package in a competitive manner during winter testing, but when we arrived in Melbourne we thought we would be able to show a more convincing performance than what we have shown so far. In any case, the thing that struck me most was the team's reaction to the need to be more competitive, especially after the regulatory clarifications relating to the use of the diffuser, which allowed us to already present in China a first evolution of the piece, thanks to the work of the whole team".

Symmonds was, however, categorical about the need to be more competitive starting from next weekend's Spanish GP, thanks to the new components and the development of the double-decker diffuser already introduced in China. “The entire team is working hard on the updates and the first speaker was just an initial attempt which will be followed by other innovations during the season, I hope to start already in Barcelona” he added.

At the same time, Alonso is determined to score "many points" in his home race after retiring last year. “It's always a special thing to race in Spain and I'm lucky to have two home races like Barcelona and Valencia” he said. “Thanks to the support of the fans I always have an edge and I hope to make them happy with a great weekend. It will be difficult to fight for the podium, but we hope to qualify well to aim for some excellent placings."

Marco Privitera