Renault's Chief Technical Officer Bob Bell says the French marque is expecting a "really close" season-long battle with engine customer McLaren, but admits they were relieved to be so close to the British team at the start of the year.
Although Renault is behind McLaren in the standings – just three points separate them – the manufacturer has out-qualified its rival at each Grand Prix, and beat it to the chequered flag in Bahrain and China.
Bell admitted Renault was initially "worried" it'd be behind customer team McLaren and was therefore relieved with the relative pace in the opening rounds, but remains wary of McLaren's development potential.
"I think we are reasonably pleased with how we have positioned ourselves to McLaren – which we were very worried about when they came on board with the [same] engine," Bell is quoted as saying by Racer.
"It's going to be nip and tuck with them all season and McLaren are going to develop – McLaren are very good at developing to recover any losses from the start.
"It's going to be really closely fought. We had hoped to be a little bit further ahead at the start but this isn't an exact science and we know we can do a good development job in season."
Bell also admitted Renault was "disappointed" to have fallen further back from the top three teams and with such a tight midfield battle, scoring consistent points had now become harder than ever.
"We had hoped to take a bit more lap time out of the top three teams over the winter and we haven't," said Bell.
"If anything they might have moved further ahead, so we are a little bit disappointed about that.
"If the top three teams score points, that only leaves the final four placings for teams to get points and there are four teams around scrabbling for those. It is going to be really tight and difficult.
"Clearly Toro Rosso and Haas have done a great job over the winter and are making life very difficult for us, but it's surprising how far back Williams have fallen and you could say the same about Force India.
"They might make a significant jump forward at some point, in which case it will become even harder [to score points]."
