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Renault sets sights on Ferrari and McLaren

Renault is targeting the front of the grid in the second half of the season © Getty Images

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• Drivers:
• Robert Kubica

• Teams:
• Ferrari
• |
• McLaren
• |
• Renault

Renault is confident that it now has the fourth fastest car ahead of Mercedes and is setting its sights on catching Ferrari and McLaren in the upcoming races.

Robert Kubica hasn't finished outside the top ten since the first round in Australia and currently lies sixth in the drivers' standings. The car had a major upgrade in Valencia and the team was aiming for a podium but fell slightly short in fifth. However, chief engineer Alan Permane is confident Renault is making significant progress.

"We've made up ground on Mercedes and we're solidly the fourth quickest team at the moment," he said. "There's still a long way to go to catch up with Red Bull, but we're just behind McLaren and Ferrari and if we can keep improving the car like we've done so far, we can expect to be on terms with them soon."

Central to the car's recent performance gain is its new Red Bull-style blown diffuser. Introduced in Valencia, the modified exhaust layout of the R30 feeds gases into the diffuser to boost its performance. And Permane believes there is still more to come from the revised rear end at the upcoming races.

"Everything performed as we expected it to and the new front wing and new blown floor worked very well," he confirmed. "It always takes time to fully understand any updates you put on the car, and it's difficult to do that in just one weekend, so we feel there is still more potential to come from them. In fact, we can probably expect to get more of an advantage from the updates at Silverstone, especially the blown floor because there are a lot more high-speed corners where you're on the throttle through the corners. We're confident of another strong showing there."

Mercedes and Ferrari also introduced blown diffusers in Valencia, while McLaren will debut its version at the British Grand Prix.

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