Renault surprised by gap to McLaren, BMW

Although the world champions did not expect to be able to fight with Ferrari in Melbourne, they did hope to be a match for McLaren and BMW after a good final test in Sepang prior to the start of the season.

However, Renault were unable to fight near the front, with Giancarlo Fisichella finishing a distant fifth and teammate Heikki Kovalainen down in 10th place.

"I think that the major surprise of the weekend for us was that the gap to McLaren and BMW was much greater than we had expected after the final week of pre-season testing in Bahrain," said Symonds.

"As we approached the first race, we were well aware that our level of performance was not good enough - and that Ferrari were a long way in front.

"However, we believed that we could race BMW, and that we were not far off McLaren on race pace. However, the reality turned out to be that we were behind, both in qualifying and race trim."

Despite the gap to their rivals coming as a surprise to Renault, Symonds admits the team were already focused on solving their problems well before the season started.

"The first race may have quantified the performance deficit, but we were already well aware that our level of performance was not adequate," he added. "Therefore, we have been focusing for a number of weeks on assessing where the lack of performance lies.

"We are not dealing with a fundamental handling vice, as both drivers have said the car is reasonably well-balanced. Our concentration is therefore on getting the most out of the tyres, but first and foremost on aggressive development of the car's aerodynamics."

The French squad will have three days of testing at Sepang prior to the next race of the season in April, and Symonds is hopeful they will find some answers there.

"I think it (the test) simply carries the same weight as any other test under the current agreement," said Symonds. "Those three days will represent 12.5% of our in-season testing allocation, and we will have to make the best possible use of it.

"We know that our performance is not where it should be, and the challenge now is to get on with the job and sort it out."