Renault eyes step forward in Valencia

"We've got quite a nice upgrade coming, with a new front wing and a new floor, which we believe will take us another step further forward," said Renault's chief engineer Alan Permane in a team preview.

Pole Robert Kubica is also optimistic the upgrades will allow him to fight closer to the top of the field, which he reckons is not too far right now.

"The gap to the front of the field is not so big, but we still have to gain a lot of ground, and we can only do that if we keep pushing and keep working," he said.

"We will have a new package on the car this weekend, and we hope that will bring us another step forward. But every team will be bringing updates, so it will depend how much they bring and how much they improve.

"In Valencia, anything could happen, and we need to wait and see if the order is shuffled and how we will perform compared to Mercedes."

Permane also praised the team's development so far this year, labelling it as 'incredible'.

"We have certainly seen an incredible rate of development this year. If we take the gap to pole position as a measure of how much we've improved, we've seen the gap steadily reduce race by race as we've developed quicker than some of our competitors," he added.

"And with the updates we have planned for this weekend, that trend will hopefully continue."