Wednesday 18 June at 16:37 : Renault will not be abandoning development of its current car, technical director Bob Bell insists.

After Pat Symonds recently admitted the dilemma posed by the sweeping 2009 regulation changes, lead driver Fernando Alonso suggested it might be a good idea for the French squad to turn all its focus towards designing next year's single seater.

But Bell this week insisted that the R28 is not now performing too badly.

"We're under no illusion that we're going to have to work very hard to keep that level of competitiveness up, but we have an aggressive development programme for the rest of the season, and we are confident that we have an adaptable baseline to work from," he said.

Interestingly, in the same official Magny Cours team preview, 26-year-old Alonso is quoted as agreeing that "we must now continue our efforts because we can see the rewards".

"I know that everybody in the team is doing their best to improve our performance, and that will pay off in the end," the Spaniard added.