Gene suspects more to come from Renault.

Ferrari development driver Marc Gene says he has reason to believe that Renault will be more of a force come the opening round of the Formula One world championship than its testing performances suggest.

Speaking to Spanish daily Marca, Gene claimed that the Enstone-based team may be keeping its powder dry in the group tests in order to disguise its true potential ahead of next month's season-opener in Melbourne. Renault, led by returning world champion Fernando Alonso, has been around a second off the pace in the sessions held to date in Barcelona and Jerez, but Gene reckons that the real margin could be far less than that, adding to similar claims made by rival teams that the regie could be 'sandbagging'.

"Although they have not been the quickest in testing, they have known since April that their car was not working well enough, and they started working on the 2008 car right then," the Spaniard insisted, "It is possible that we are looking at a wolf in sheep's clothing and that Fernando will be at the front again."

Should Gene and the others be right - and there have been sources that claim Renault is secretly working on a trick rear wing that could give it a major performance boost - Renault and Alonso could vault into contention for success in Australia along with Ferrari and McLaren, which have generally set the pace in testing. Although Red Bull Racing has also taken its turn at the top of the timesheets, Gene reckons that the Scuderia should be out front.

"After winning the title [with Kimi Raikkonen] last year, the feeling is very good," he said of the team's morale, "There was a certain fear after Michael Schumacher and Ross Brown left, but we are all very relaxed because we took that title and I believe that that means there will be less pressure this year. I think that we are going to have a good car, but we will have to see what the others will be doing."

With Gene's role within the Scuderia being cut back following the restriction on using test drivers during the season, the Spaniard is looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of Peugeot's sports prototype - even if Ferrari commitments still mean that he is unavailable for the entire Le Mans Series campaign.

"I cannot drive that much for Ferrari [after the FIA changed the rules on testing], so my work is limited to aerodynamic tests and working in the 'flight simulator'," he revealed, "I'm lucky that, with the new regulations, my work has been reduced, as many teams that are reducing personnel. Although there are teams, like McLaren, that trust blindly in the results of the simulator, we prefer to have as much data as possible from different sources.

"The team has asked me to go to all the races this year and, because of that, I am going to miss three rounds of the LMS, and that is disappointing because the Barcelona round coincides with Bahrain.

"However, I am looking forward to getting back in the Peugeot, and we hope to be able to compete with the car that gave us the pole at Le Mans last season. We need to find greater reliability with the engine and race with the same pace as in qualifying."