Renault adamant R29 can win races

Symonds, whose team endured a difficult start to the year in 2008, admits the team's target for the season is to be challenging for the title, but always staying realistic once they see the level of competitiveness of the rest of the field.

"The target I set at the beginning of the season is always the same: to be winning races and challenging for the championship - it would be wrong to have any other intention," said Symonds.

"However, when you start tempering your expectations with reality, you may moderate that target a little bit.

"Nonetheless, I do believe that we've got a car that is good enough to challenge for wins and when you combine that with our drivers and the team's ability to go racing, I'm fairly confident we can deliver a strong start to the season."

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso conceded it was very hard to tell how competitive Renault will be following all the regulations changes.

Alonso, however, is hopeful he will be one of the drivers fighting at the top in Melbourne.

"We finished in a strong position last year and this year our goal is to fight for the championship," the Spaniard said. "But we have lots of new regulations this year and nobody really knows what will happen when we get to Melbourne.

"From what we have seen in testing it seems all the teams are very close and so we will certainly have a fight on our hands."

He added: "In the past Albert Park has been a good track for Renault and so I hope we can have a strong weekend.

"I think the order of the teams will probably be different from the last few years as we have got used to Ferrari and McLaren dominating, but with the new rules I think there will be lots of cars fighting for the win. Hopefully we will be in that fight."