» Renault hoping to challenge ‘Big Four’

Renault’s new Team Principal Eric ‘I sign drivers for their talent’ Boullier is an ambitious man.

Following the team’s disastrous 2009 campaign that saw the team plummet to 8th in the Constructors’ Championship standings (the lowest of all the manufacturer teams) and be rocked by the ‘Crashgate’ controversy, 2010 will be very much a rebuilding year for the team, which was recently bought out by the Luxembourg-based Genii Capital group.

The newly-installed Boullier is confident that his team will bounce back from last year, led by star signing Robert Kubica.

“Our preparations have gone very well … Our biggest strength is our people. We have a very highly motivated team which is responsive and proactive in the way it goes racing – this was clearly demonstrated after the first test session ~~when we realised the R30 was no better than the R29~~, when the factory made a big push to make changes to the car in time for the Jerez test."

With the four teams (in no particular order) of Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes GP and Red Bull being favoured to lead the race to the 2010 title, Boullier believes Renault will be able to close the gap over the season.

“It has been very tough to understand and unpick the details of winter testing and how we compare with the other teams because we don’t know what approach they have taken.

“~~Our car is off-the-pace~~ We took a decision to run with heavy fuel at every test because we believed this was the best way to understand and improve the car. In terms of outright performance, I hope we are close to the top four teams.”

A mere pipedream from Eric, or does his spin-heavy spiel have some truth to it?

Time will tell…!