Alonso says Renault a second behind

"At the moment, we need to close the gap to the top teams, McLaren and Ferrari, because we are a little bit too far behind them," Alonso told reporters during the launch of the new Renault in Paris.

"At the moment, there is not any possibility to fight for podiums or wins, or things like that, so that is the first priority of this winter tests and the first race.

"To close the gap, and to be behind them two or three tenths is not such a big problem.

"But to be one second or eight tenths, like we are at the moment, is a little bit too much," the Spaniard added.

The French squad, world champions with Alonso in 2005 and 2006, endured a dismal season last year, finishing on the podium just once on their way to a distant third place in the standings.

"Renault last year was not competitive enough and that is the thing that we must change for this year," Alonso added. "The team is very focused on changing this and they work very hard on this new car to sort out the problems they had last year, and I am here to help and to give my experience to them.

"All together we hope to work in the same direction and get Renault back in the fight. It won't be easy because all the other teams improve as well, and if Renault were one second behind last year we need to recover that.

"How? We need to work longer than the others, but that is not possible because there is one month to the first race and we cannot work longer than the others. So we need to work better. We will see what we can do.

"We need to be clever and we need to do the right things to the car to improve it. That is the target for this February's testing."

Alonso left Renault at the end of 2006 but returned to the French team after just one season at McLaren. The Spaniard parted company with the British outfit after a turbulent season.

Despite his problems, Alonso said he had no regrets about his move.

"I don't think so," he said when asked if leaving Renault was a mistake. "Last year Renault was struggling to get into Q3 and McLaren was fighting for the title. So I had the opportunity to fight for the championship last year and I don't regret anything.

"I was lucky to be for the third consecutive time fighting for the title, and that is what a driver wants. It was a difficult season, but I was lucky also."