Renault set sights on fourth in points

Alonso finished fourth at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend as Toyota had a troubled time and, with high hopes the R28 can now deliver on the promising form it has shown in recent races, the team are more bullish about what they can deliver.

"Our objective is clearly to finish in fourth place in the constructors' championship and I'm determined to do all I can to help the team do that," said Alonso.

"The battle is very close, as it has been since the start of the year, and each point will be important at the end of the season. We are five points behind Toyota with five races to go, so I think that is an achievable target."

Although Renault's straightline speed performance will hamper them slightly on Monza's long straights, the team's technical director Bob Bell says the Spa result has reinforced their belief in beating Toyota.

"But we're also well aware of how difficult it is to score points at the moment," he said. "McLaren and Ferrari are clearly in front of us and so, if they have a good day, there are not many points left to go around. So it's hard to close a gap of even five points, but I'm confident that we can do it and finish ahead of Toyota in the remaining five races to take that fourth spot."

And Bell believes that Nelson Piquet must lift his game to help add to Renault's points tally.

"He (Piquet) needs to bounce back and put that race behind him. Monza is a track that he knows and he drove there in the pre-race test a few weeks ago, which will have helped his preparation. Hopefully he can be there picking up points because with such a close championship battle we need points from both drivers."

As well as the low downforce package that all teams run at Monza, Renault are still focusing on introducing more improvements to the R28 at Singapore before deciding if to focus entirely on the R29.

"At this stage of the season, we are pretty much fully focussed on the 2009 car, but we still have developments for the R28, which we will take to Singapore," explained Bell. "After that we will examine whether there are any more chances to develop the R28, but we are very mindful that we need to concentrate the vast majority of our energy on the R29."