Renault expects to be more competitive next season after a woeful year which brought  no victories.

The French manufacturer, who supplies engines to Red Bull and Toro Rosso, are closing in on a return to the grid as a team by taking over Lotus.

However, they will need to prove they have learned from a dismal 2015, although director of operations Remi Taffin thought they were sitting pretty ahead of the first test.

He told Motorsport.com: "We arrived at the first winter test believing that we had made a big step forward between seasons. We genuinely thought that we had done a good job.”

However, they had regressed and Red Bull failed to win a race.

They made steady improvements over the season and hope to be back fighting for wins next year.

"They were able to bring different concepts to the table, such as a different combustion concept, and now we will continue with them into 2016," Taffin said.

"We will continue to develop a lot in-house but with partners such as Ilmor we have a greater bandwidth and a richer experience and expertise.

"We did not see the full extent of the collaboration in 2015 for various reasons, but now they are under our control and we have a clearer direction we should see this more in 2016 and beyond."


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