Renault welcome Alonso back with sights on title

By Alan Baldwin

PARIS (Reuters) - Renault presented their 2008 Formula One car and welcomed home Fernando Alonso on Thursday as they set their sights on recapturing the world championship they lost last year.

Renault President Carlos Ghosn set out the team's objectives in blunt language, telling the audience at the French manufacturer's Boulogne-Billancourt headquarters: "In '08, better than '07".

"I am going to quote (team boss) Flavio (Briatore) who qualified 2007 as a disaster. He said it, and we ended up in third position.

"So if number three is a disaster, you are left with two choices," added Ghosn. "And, obviously, I have a slight preference for one of them.

"I am very confident, we have great drivers and a great team... This is a team of winners so, hopefully, we are going to be at the level of the expectations of the public."

Renault, without Alonso, failed to win a race last season after two years in which they and the Spaniard had been dominant. They scored 51 points to Ferrari's 204 and BMW Sauber's 101.

The team would have been fourth overall had McLaren not been stripped of all their points for a spying controversy and Briatore said they needed to do much better.

"Renault need to be fighting for the podium, to win races, to be protagonists of the show," he said. "Everybody wants to win and it's not so easy but we need to be there. We need to be fighting for the podium all the time."