Renault upbeat about revised aero

The team's 2006-challenger has been marked out as one of the pre-season favourites after some impressive performances in winter testing, and the team confirmed on Monday that new developments, tried out for the first time at the recent Barcelona test, should make it even quicker come this weekend.

"We are constantly honing all areas of the aerodynamics," said Renault's technical director Bob Bell. "This (new) package includes a new floor, modifications to the front wing and nose, modified suspension components and the addition of two small chassis winglets. Altogether, that represents several tenths in laptime."

Bell said that Renault were planning to push the development programme for their R26 much harder than they did last season - which will likely result in new parts coming on board for each race.

"We intend to push even harder than we did for the R25, and we are gearing up for that. In concrete terms, that means developments at every race. Furthermore, we will be working with more capacity than last year.

"Our wind tunnel is now operating 24 hours a day, and we have made other changes to streamline our working methods. All of that means we will be able to add performance to the car even faster this year."

Despite his optimism about the work on the R26, Bell has drawn short of admitting that Renault are the favourites for Bahrain.

"Looking at the winter testing times, and especially the long runs, then it's obvious that Renault, Honda and McLaren are right up there at the front," he said.

"I am sure come Bahrain, Ferrari will be much more competitive than last year. It is hard to judge exactly how much at the moment, but you can never write them off. I think Toyota will also move further along, and show themselves to be more competitive."