Renault admit tyre performance struggle

The Briton reckons, however, that the French squad are in good shape when it comes to tyre degradation.

"Back in November, we said that our objective was to learn our lessons by the time we reached Melbourne," Symonds said. "We are not in Australia yet, and we haven't learned all our lessons either!

"I think we are in a good position in terms of tyre degradation, but we have not yet unlocked the secret of getting performance out of the tyres on the first lap."

Renault are using Bridgestone tyres this season for the first time after Michelin's withdrawal from the sport.

The world champions have so far failed to match rivals Ferrari or McLaren during winter testing, and Symonds admits the new tyre allocations is not making solving their problems any easier.

"Ideally, you would throw lots of sets of new tyres at the problem - but under the new tyre allocations for testing, that's not really an option," Symonds added.

"This is all part of the learning process you go through when you change tyre supplier, and we are discussing the matter with Bridgestone, and learning with them as well."

Symonds says that, despite their lack of pace, Renault are not worried ahead of the start of the season, and that they will continue working towards finding a solution.

"We are not worried, but when you are not on top of the pile, then you have to be honest enough to admit it - and knuckle down to try and find the speed," he added.

"From what we have seen so far, we seem to be several tenths away from the fastest runners in most conditions - on the first lap, and the long runs too.

"We know what we want to do to find the performance: we need to start getting the most out of the tyres, and push even harder on all our traditional development paths. And we are working bloody hard at it."