Fernando Alonso does not expect his Renault team to repeat last year’s end-of-season form which rocketed the Spaniard to victories in Singapore and Japan.
The French Manufacturer struggled throughout the first half of 2008, but became competitive nearer the end of the year. However this season has witnessed Renault slip back down the order, with the Spaniard failing to challenge the front runners.
With the team already fully focused on next year’s challenger, Alonso believes that Renault will not make any more improvements towards the end of the season, but must remain focussed on the job at hand.
“We will see,” Alonso told reporters ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. “This year is different and you never what is going to happen. Last year it was difficult to predict our final part of the championship, and this year it is also difficult to predict how it is going to be for us and the other teams.
“Maybe last year we had a better opportunity because the car was improving with every race, and this year it is not the case.
“The 2009 Renault is already finished, and the 2010 car has already started, so there will be little improvement from now on and so more difficult to win races.
“But in the last three races we were very competitive. If we had had some luck one of those weekends, and we had maximised our opportunities, then we’d be talking about podiums.
“But we didn’t maximise the opportunities, so from now on we need perfect weekends.”
Alonso, who is heavily linked with a switch to Ferrari in 2010, also said that he was in talks with a number of teams’ about his future and was in no rush to make an annoucement.
“We’re still thinking and evaluating some possibilities, so we will see. Maybe next week is too early.”
