New parts boost Renault hopes

"For this race we will have new aerodynamics and mechanical items, which will represent a good step forward," explained Gascoyne. "We have a new diffuser, a new rear wing and several new items on the rear suspension.

"Overall we are pretty confident. I believe the team is in a comparable position to where we finished last year and, for us, Melbourne was a harder circuit than Sepang at which to succeed. We will take encouragement from our performance in the first race and believe we should perform strongly in Malaysia."

The Renaults went well in qualifying in Melbourne but neither car made it to the end. Jenson Button was one of many drivers to get caught up in the first corner melee and Jarno Trulli crashed out of second place while trying to fend off Michael Schumacher. However, Button feels that the R202 has the potential to take a top six place this Sunday.

"We know from testing that the car is reliable, even though we didn't manage to complete a full race distance in Melbourne," he said. "I'm confident our position relative to the rest of the grid will not change, and hope to have a trouble-free qualifying session before a good result in the race."