Alonso hopeful about Turkey upgrade

Fernando Alonso is hopeful Renault can start to claw back ground on the front-running cars when its latest car upgrade comes on stream in Turkey.

The Anglo-French squad sits sixth in the constructors’ championship having yet to finish higher than fifth so far in 2009, Alonso admitting in Monaco last weekend that his seventh place finish there accurately represented the R29’s current level of pace.

But the former two-time champion is optimistic things may start to improve from the next round at Istanbul Park, the Spaniard expressing confidence in the team’s ability to make big development gains like last year.

Asked by Renault’s website if he expected to aim for a similar result at the next race, he said: “Not necessarily because the team is working hard to introduce some new developments to the R29 for Turkey.

“We could therefore take a step forward and perhaps make up some ground on our rivals.

“I remain convinced that we can have a strong second half of the season if things unfold as we expect them to.

“We just need to continue working hard, keep our expectations high and the results will follow.”

And while his two-point haul from Monaco was comparatively meagre to his and the team’s past results on the street circuit, Alonso stressed the importance of keeping its points tally ticking over.

“We've scored two points, which isn't a lot, but it's important to score points at each race so we can start fighting back in the championship,” he added.

Alonso himself sits ahead of previous front-running rivals Lewis Hamilton (McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa (both Ferrari) on 11 points in the drivers’ championship, but is a massive 40 adrift of runaway leader Jenson Button.

Click