Alonso pleased with R24 progress

Fernando Alonso put the new Renault R24 through its paces at Barcelona this week and is pleased with the way the car is progressing. Alonso worked on general set up of the R24 at the Circuit de Catalunya during the three-day test, as well as running a race distance. He posted the fastest time of the day on Wednesday and the team reportedly met all its reliability targets. The Spaniard is already convinced the new car is better than its predecessor.

"The first thing to say is that the car is quicker than the R23: it performs better in every area, and when a car is quicker, you don't question it," Alonso told the team website. "As a driver, once you know the car is faster, it is then a question of getting a good feeling and adapting to its individual characteristics."

"But I still think we can make improvements: to the chassis, the engine, the tyres and of course the driver. We are learning about the car all the time, fine-tuning things, getting used to how it reacts to different changes in set-up. We will make progress in every domain between now and Melbourne."

Engine reliability will be even more important this season with the one engine per weekend rule and Alonso expects the RS24 to improve as it goes along. "There have already been new developments to try, and we have more to come," he said.

"We know there is work to do before we reach the very top level in terms of performance, but whereas last year the engine was on the limit by the final races, this year we have good potential to improve. The reliability is already good and when you drive the car, it is feeling better and better."

Alonso returns to testing duties at Imola in two weeks time while teammate Jarno Trulli and test driver Franck Montagny will be on track next week at Jerez.

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