Renault aims to end season on a high

After a very strong showing at Spa, where Robert Kubica finished third, the team's performance dropped at Monza and Singapore.

Boullier says Renault is keeping its feet on the ground for the remaining races, but reckons the characteristics of the circuits should help the team move closer to the top.

"We don't want to be too optimistic, to be fair," Boullier told AUTOSPORT. "The next four tracks should suit better our car, you have to carry less downforce and our package with medium downforce is at its best - you saw this in Spa so we should be much more competitive."

He reckons, however, the team will need to be flawless in order to close the gap to Mercedes in the championship, with the German squad 35 points ahead.

"I think it can be, but we definitely need a faultless weekend and maybe a little bit of luck from our side."

The Renault boss admitted the Singapore GP weekend was disappointing for the team, which expected a better performance following its strong race in Monaco.

"Disappointing," he said of the race. "Clearly we were not on the pace that we were expecting to be. We understand the new surface of tarmac was much less bumpy, which is why high downforce cars get more up to speed than us, and the results at the end were not very good.

"At the end we lost again some points on Mercedes and the result itself is not very good.

"Even if Robert drove brilliantly, and we can praise his performance on this - it was unbelievable to see. But clearly it was not a very good weekend for us."

Kubica finished in seventh position at Marina Bay following a late charge.