Symonds: R28 has been a letdown

Pat Symonds has conceded that Renault's 2008 challenger, the R28, has failed to live up the team's expectations.


After a disastrous 2007 season, which saw the then-reigning Champions fail to bag even a single race win, Renault had hoped for a better performances this season. And given that they had started early on their 2008 car, it was also expected.


To date, though, the R28 has failed to live up to the team's expectations as, although there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the car, it lacks the speed needed to escape the midfield.


"It doesn't appear to have a particularly difficult sweet spot," Symonds told Autosport.


"So early indications say there's nothing much wrong with the car other than it needs more aero efficiency, could do with slightly better ride, but nothing beyond that.


"You have to say it's not on target for performance but it's not as if there's an area that's deficient that we didn't expect. In other words, nothing's gone wrong, we just haven't achieved the levels we need to be at the front.


"We started pulling development off last year's car in August and pushing it onto this one because we knew that once we'd solved our problems from last year we had a huge deficit.


"In doing that, we set ourselves a very aggressive target of what we had to do in terms of development - we didn't quite meet it but we've certainly made improvements that have been more than a normal year-on-year."


And with more improvements coming in time for next weekend's Spanish GP, Renault fans may be hopeful of a home podium finish for Fernando Alonso. Symonds, though, believes that goal is still out of reach.


"We've got some big upgrades for both aero and chassis coming for Barcelona," he said. ""But I think there are 10 other teams saying exactly the same thing!


"We have some quite interesting chassis stuff coming as well which we hope will push us a little bit further."