Nelson Piquet needs to believe in himself if he is to turn his so far disappointing season around, that’s the wisdom offered by Renault’s Pat Symonds who witnessed Heikki Kovalainen rejuvenate his career with Renault this time last year.

Renault have made some slight tweaks to their technical department – Dirk de Beer, the current head of aerodynamics, has taken over from Dino Toso as director of aerodynamic technology. It is understood that Toso will remain as an employee of the Renault team, although it is currently unclear as to what position he will move to.

Renault’s state of the art technology centre, which will be up and running later in the year, will benefit from a five-fold increase in computing capacity the team announced today. The expansion will place Renault at the forefront of technology-driven research in F1.

The Renault F1 team have officially launched their 2008 car, the R28, in Paris earlier today.

The R28 Formula One car made it’s debut at Valencia last week, driven by former world champion Fernando Alonso. Outwardly, the car looks little different to the R27 with ING still being the main sponsor of the team.

Weeks of speculation have ended with the announcement that Fernando Alonso will be racing for Renault next season. His team-mate at the French manufacturer will be Nelsinho Piquet Jr making it an all-new line-up for Renault for the 2008 season.

Flavio Briatore is confident his team can bounce back to winning ways in 2008. 2007 has been a relatively poor season for the Renault team – reigning world champions for two seasons, many had expected them to be challenging for podiums. However, the manufacturer has slipped behind McLaren, Ferrari and BMW, scoring just a single podium during the 2007 season.

Alain Dassas, president of the Renault F1 team, has left Renault and is heading to Nissan where he has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. Bernard Rey, currently Senior Vice President, will succeed Dassas.

Renault, world champions for the last two seasons in Formula 1, have had a torrid 2007. Expected to do well, they have failed to match up to their previous years’ efforts and are languishing in fourth place in the constructors’ championship behind McLaren, Ferrari and BMW.

Formula 1 champions Renault have announced a $50 million long-term investment in technology after a poor season by their standards which has seen them slip a long way behind the two main 2007 title rivals.

Despite a poor start to the season, Renault are confident that they will become more competitive at Magny-Cours. Renault have scored as many points in the last two races in Canada and America as third-placed BMW-Sauber. Engineering boss Pat Symonds believes that this trend is positive for his team.