Bell: Renault will be competitive in Singapore

Renault’s technical director Bob Bell said that Fernando Alonso showed the full potential of the R29 at Monza and he expects a similar result at the next race on the streets of Singapore.

Alonso took his Renault to fifth place in the Italian grand prix.

After running in sixth for most of the race, the Spaniard inherited an additional position when Lewis Hamilton threw his McLaren out of third place and into the barriers at the exit of the first Lesmo on the penultimate lap.

Heading to the Singapore for round 14 of the 2009 season, Bell is expecting the R29 to be as competitive.

'I think the result showed the potential of the car and Fernando certainly got 100% out of it,' said Bell.

'We were fortunate to gain a few places in the race but overall I think that fifth place was a fair reflection of our competitiveness and brought us the sort of points that we should have scored in the last few races.

'The R29 doesn’t have any specific weak points and delivers a similar level of performance with both high and low downforce.

'Its weakness is that it needs more overall performance in terms of grip through downforce and mechanical set-up. This weekend we will use a similar package to the one we used in Monaco, although we will incorporate the evolutions made since that race.'

Bell confirmed that Renault are planning to introduce a number of small upgrades to the R29 in the final four races of the season, but he said the team has already switched its focus to 2010.

'We do have developments planned for some of the remaining races and they will come along in due course. There’s nothing major but they are sensible upgrades that are already in the production process,' said Bell.

'Our main development focus is now completely on the R30 and getting ready for 2010.'