Magic wand

"First you have to gain a second and then two tenths at a time," Alonso said recently. "I think that this year, unlike 2005 or 2006, we will go from less to more.

"No team, and not Renault, have a magic wand to take away two seconds at a time, that much is obvious.

"We all want a winning car but I think that at Renault we can do it, if not this year then next. At the moment it doesn't look like we can fight for the title, but everything can change," added the Spaniard.

His rivals are certainly not counting him out in a season that offers the dream outcome, for commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, of having the top three drivers from 2007 in different teams.

"Fernando is a champion so obviously we all can expect him to be fighting in the front," said former Renault team mate Jarno Trulli, now with Toyota.

"But Renault has also to deliver him a good car."

Renault bosses believe they can do that, at least over the course of the season.

"Fernando would not have made up for the deficiencies of last year's car," said engineering head Pat Symonds at the launch of the R28 car.

"We are now confident we have overcome those problems, and we are desperate to give him the car his talent deserves. I am certain that the combination of Fernando in a revitalised Renault will see him challenging for race wins.

"He knows what he wants from the car, and we have shown in the past that we can deliver it."

(Agencies via China Daily March 3, 2008)