Renault bullish on Turkish GP chances

Former world champion Fernando Alonso made the most of a host of improvements to the R28 to put his car on the front row of the grid in Barcelona and challenge for a good haul of points before an engine failure put him out.

And Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds is bullish of a similar good performance at Istanbul this weekend.

"Aerodynamic efficiency pays dividends at nearly every track, and so there is no reason to believe that we will not be in a similar position in Istanbul," said Symonds on Monday.

"I firmly believe that we are within one percent of the leading team now, which is a big improvement from where we were at the beginning of the season. But we must not be complacent because there is still a lot to do and so we will introduce further aero upgrades in time for Istanbul."

Alonso is equally upbeat about the state of the team, admitting that the promise shown in Spain has fired up his motivation for the forthcoming races on the calendar.

"It was clear from the beginning of the weekend that we had made progress in Barcelona and I said that this was thanks to the efforts of the whole team who have worked very hard in the last few weeks to get us closer to the leading pace," he said. "This is only the first step and we will have an aggressive approach for the races to come with further new developments.

"I know it will not be easy, but I am sure that we will now be able to have some exciting races, and as a driver I want this more than anything."

Symonds admits that the performance in Spain has lifted morale at Renault, but is equally aware that it is vital the team start delivering points as well.

"We need to start scoring points again and if we had not shown the potential we did in Spain, then I don't think we would know how we were going to get those points," he said. "The fact is that we have shown the potential and therefore we can go out and race for the points."