Fisichella: Renault not closing the gap

Renault tested new solutions for four days at the Barcelona circuit last week in order to try to solve the problems that have been hitting the team since the start of the season.

The French squad, world champions for the past two years, are yet to finish higher than fifth and have scored just nine points in three races.

And although Renault are working flat out to return to the top of the field, Fisichella reckons the improvements found in Barcelona will be not be enough to get closer to the top teams.

"With what we have brought here we have moved in the right direction, but everyone has moved, so we did not make a big jump," Fisichella told autosport.com at the end of testing. "The difference is still the same, we have a big margin to improve.

"But I am confident. We are working hard and we are concentrating to make it better. We are not here to do quick times, just working hard to make it better."

The Roman driver insists Renault's main problem continues to be a lack of grip, and admits only hard work will get them out of the difficult situation they are in.

"We lack grip in general," he explained. "The rear end of the car is most difficult under braking, we do suffer from heavy understeer in high speed corners. We lack so much grip that it is hard to maintain the speed to do a good quick time.

"In the last race we were 1.5 seconds behind, which is so big. It is not something we expected, whatever it is, it's is not right. We just have to work harder to solve it."

Fisichella added: "Bridgestone is not the problem. You see McLaren, who also changed from Michelin to Bridgestone, has the fastest car. Maybe at the moment we have not understood (the tyres) enough."