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Renault Target Regular Podium Placings

Renault want regular podium places in 2003 before fighting for Formula One titles the following year, team boss Patrick Faure said at the launch of their new car today.

Renault want regular podium places in 2003 before fighting for Formula One titles the following year, team boss Patrick Faure said at the launch of their new car today.

The Anglo-French team, who returned as a full manufacturer last year and finished fourth overall, presented their R23 challenger in front of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland with the slogan 'Racing to new heights'.

"We need podiums this year," said Renault Formula One chairman Faure. "That is podiums with an 's' - not only one, because if we want to be able to fight in 2004 and 2005 for World Championships we need podiums this year."

The car will make its track debut on Thursday, at the southern French Le Castellet circuit, but the team expect to develop it significantly before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 9.

Alonso Arrives

Spaniard Fernando Alonso has moved up from the test team, replacing Briton Jenson Button alongside Italian Jarno Trulli this year. The pair have already been training together at team principal Flavio Briatore's Kenyan residence.

Briatore has tipped Alonso as a future World Champion and believes the relationship between the pair will help Renault move forward.

"Last year Jenson and Jarno were great, but now it is a bit better because they both spend time together," said Briatore. "Jarno and Fernando speak together and it is great to have two drivers like them. They give a lot of motivation to the team and that is what you want."

Trulli finished eighth in the Championship last year with nine points after a slow start, but believes his end of season improvement underlined his real potential.

He has already built up a good relationship with Alonso, who raced for Minardi in 2001 before joining Renault as a test driver, and admitted this year will be easier - now that he and his teammate can speak the same language.

"We will get on very well, even during the season," said Trulli. "This is what we want because I never had a problem in the past.

"I had a good relationship with Jenson, it is just that it is different because he, as English, didn't speak Italian. If you both speak the same language, like me and Fernando, it is much easier for everybody.

"People are sometimes different and maybe me and Fernando match slightly better than me and Jenson but any good teammate is tough."

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