It was almost a tear jerker of a moment when Fernando Alonso jumped back into the arms of Flavio Briatore just a few short months ago. Briatore was tooting his horn with a smile on his face saying we have a faster car and now we have our Fernando back. Oh, what a difference now.

The Renault camp for sure isn’t a happy one these days. The car that was suppose to start the road back to success in F1 has so far fallen even shorter than in 2007. Fernando Alonso who was suppose to be able to give front runners some sort of a challenge with the R28 has had to re-learn how to drive from the middle and back of the field. Not only that, but he is driving that car better than it really is. Now we are at the first test session since pre-season and Renault have to come up with something to improve the car and if they haven’t, it may be a long season.

Just to illustrate the difference from 2007 after 3 races to now in 2008 after the first 2 races, the charts below show how poor the start of this season really is.

2007 Australian Grand Prix
Driver Grid Pos Race Pos Fast Lap Points
Giancarlo Fisichella 6 5 7th: 1:26.892 4
Heikki Kovalainen 13 10 +1 lap 10th: 1:27.592 0
2008 Australian Grand Prix
Driver Grid Pos Race Pos Fast Lap Points
Fernando Alonso 11 4 7th: 1:28.603 5
Nelson Piquet 20 accident n/a 0
2007 Malaysian Grand Prix
Driver Grid Pos Race Pos Fast Lap Points
Giancarlo Fisichella 12 6 9th: 1:37.879 3
Heikki Kovalainen 11 8 7th: 1:37.810 1
2008 Malaysian Grand Prix
Driver Grid Pos Race Pos Fast Lap Points
Fernando Alonso 7 8 10th: 1:36.288 1
Nelson Piquet 13 11 15th: 1:36.956 0
2007 Bahrain Grand Prix
Driver Grid Pos Race Pos Fast Lap Points
Giancarlo Fisichella 7 8 8th: 1:35.200 1
Heikki Kovalainen 12 9 10th 1:35.475 0
2008 Bahrain Grand Prix
Driver Grid Pos Race Pos Fast Lap Points
Fernando Alonso 10 10 13th: 1:35.194 0
Nelson Piquet 14 Gear Box 12st: 1:35.129 0

Just looking at these simple stat tables and you can clearly see the difference between this season and last. It’s no wonder Alonso is frustrated. The team are expecting the most improvements in testing later this week.

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