Alonso hopeful of Renault improvement

Although the two-time champion finished in fourth place in the chaotic season opener in Australia, he could only manage eighth position in Malaysia, where Ferrari's Felipe Massa was the only retirement from a top team.

Now the Spaniard is relying on Renault taking a bigger step forward that their rivals in order to close the gap to the front.

"We have some good things coming and we are quite optimistic with an improvement of the car, but at the same time, we all know that all the teams will have a similar feeling now," Alonso told reporters in Bahrain.

"All the teams will be optimistic about their improvements, so it is up to us to make the improvements that we hope for on the track.

"Because sometimes you feel you have a good step forward and then you put it on the car and it feels more-or-less the same. Hopefully for us, we will feel the difference straight away."

Alonso, who won four races with McLaren last season, insisted he was prepared for a difficult season following Renault's struggles in 2007.

But the Renault driver admitted he was hoping the French squad would be stronger by now.

He is nonetheless optimistic that his team can still get closer to the front during the season.

"I knew more or less when I signed for Renault because I knew that the gap was too big to recover all this distance in one winter," he added. "I knew that 2008 would be a difficult season, one that we needed to keep improving through to be as close as we can to the top teams.

"But at the same time you always hope that maybe things will change and, maybe not fight for the championship, but maybe be on the podium or maybe win one or two races or whatever.

"It seems that at the moment we are not in that position, so it is a mix of feelings. In a way I knew already it was difficult, but in another way I was hoping for maybe something more.

"So it is time to work now and hopefully in the middle of the season, or maybe after Barcelona if the improvements are good enough, fight closer to the podium."