Renault (renaultf1.com/)

Last season Renault truly distinguished themselves as the clear number 4 team on the circuit. After several years of dealing with Jordan and BAR the team solidly beat both of them down to position themselves for a run to the front.

Renault, as it has been known for the past couple if years is one of only three true factory efforts with Ferrari and Toyota. This does allow them to afford luxuries some of their lesser competitors do not enjoy.

This year Flavio Briatore fields the same drivers as last year. Fernando Alonso really made great strides in his driving. His win at Hungary and 55 total points was good enough for 6th place in the standings. He is joined by Jarno Trulli who also had a solid season. He finished 8th with 33 points. By the time the team hit the US they were in high gear.

This year the team will drive the Mild Seven R24-03 with a revised V-10 engine on Michelin tyres. The engine revision was caused by the new F1 rules permitting only one engine per weekend. The V-10 was very strong before, but its reliability over the course of an F1 weekend was still undecided. The team felt it better to play safe.

This team did a lot of practicing over the winter, but clearly took it easy in February. This team is probably as good as McLaren right now. But they still have to get over the hump on scoring points. With DC’s future uncertain and Ralfie boy crying over at Williams it might be a prime time to get further up the finishing order. Expect to see both Alonso and Trulli on the podium multiple times. While I don’t know if they can make the jump to third place in the Constructors Championship, they should give it a good go.