Renault F1 technical director Bob Bell has said that the Enstone operation will continue to press on with its 2008 campaign until pre-set targets are achieved, notably finishing fourth in the constructors' championship.
While a lot of teams have confirmed that they have largely switched their attentions to the design and development of next year's machines, complete with the headache of complying with a new set of regulations, Bell insists that there is still a lot for the
regie to play for as it battles
Toyota for the 'best of the rest' accolade.
"It's a battle we
have to win, and it means as much to us as the fight between
Ferrari and
McLaren for top honours means to them," he claimed, "We're taking the fight very seriously. We stated very clearly at the start of the season that we intended to finish at least fourth and end the season as potentially the third quickest team and we intend to achieve that objective.
"We started the year over a second a lap behind the frontrunners and said that, by the end of the season, we wanted to have developed the car to a point where we could compete for podiums, which is what we've done. We recognise that we're not going to overhaul McLaren and Ferrari this season, but we can be in the mix and fighting for podiums and that's a real credit to the enormous amount of development work and effort that has gone in over the course of the season."
Bell and his technical team received a massive, if unexpected, fillip courtesy of
Fernando Alonso's victory in Singapore last time out, and all at Enstone head to this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix energised by having grabbed fourth in points from Toyota with three races to run.
