Renault reunion will be easier than 2014 F1 season - Maldonado

Renault struggled in the first year of the new engine formula and Lotus ditched the French manufacturer as its engine supplier, enjoying a more competitive 2015 with Mercedes' system.

With Renault's protracted takeover of the team finalised last month, it means a move back from Mercedes to Renault, but Maldonado is convinced that the latter has made strides since it last worked at Enstone.

"I have experience with them in the past, so it would be very interesting for me to approach a new season with Renault," he said.

"Of course it won't be very easy, so we need to build the success, but Renault has all the facilities to do it in the best way.

"We have experience with a Renault engine in the past, even if it was not working properly.

"But we know why, we have more experience and we know where the problems were, so it will be easier to approach a new season with a Renault engine than it was."

With Renault back in F1, Maldonado and the rest of the staff will at least avoid the problems encountered last season, when it was unable to develop its cars as takeover talks progressed.

Conceding 2015 was "quite tough", Maldonado added: "The financial part was not as planned.

"But at the end of the season, when you saw us race in the points without touching the car, I think we did a good job on track and in the factory as well.

"It was difficult to keep the speed and performance through the season without having any new parts.

"The design was always ready, but we were not always ready to produce the parts.

"We saw teams like Force India start behind us, but then move clearly ahead, giving a much better performance than our car."