• Spanish Grand Prix

Renault could lose ground in Spain - Kubica

Renault will not bring a major upgrade to Barcelona © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Robert Kubica

• Teams:
• Renault

Renault is not expecting to make as big a performance gain as some of its rivals at the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix.

It has been the surprise package of the season so far as the team has focused on an aggressive race-by-race development programme in order to challenge the top four teams. Robert Kubica has finished in the top five places at the last three races, but has lowered his expectations a notch ahead of Spain in the knowledge that his rivals will all bring heavily revised cars.

When asked if Renault could be leapfrogged by other teams, he said: "It's something we always expect in Barcelona and a lot of the teams have big expectations for their new packages. We are not planning to bring any huge updates, but we will keep gradually improving the car, just like we did during the first four races. We have to wait and see how we compare with the others; maybe the order of the teams will be quite different compared to the start of the year."

Renault's chief race engineer Alan Permane is more confident Renault will hold position but said it might lose ground to Mercedes ahead of it, which has one of the most hotly-anticipated updates in the paddock.

"I don't think it [the order] will shift massively," Permane said. "Mercedes may move away from us a little bit but we've got a new front wing and some other new aerodynamic parts that should help us make another step forward. It's not the biggest update we've had this year, but it continues our approach of adding new parts at each race. It will be very interesting to see how the situation shakes out between the different teams."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.