As he contemplated with delight the pristine new livery of his RS16 challenger, Kevin Magnussen offered his thoughts on the difficulties of predicting the performance level of Renault this year.
The French outfit is basically the same foundation as the Lotus team which it took over at the end of 2015, but the addition of key personnel and the integration of Renault itself into the Enstone works has spawned a new outfit.
"I get asked a lot about our expectations for this year," Magnussen said. "It's a new team since Renault took over Lotus."
"So it's difficult to know really where we are but what we can expect is that we will be in the best position possible."
Looking ahead to the current campaign which kicks off this weekend in Melbourne, Magnussen was equally unclear about what would constitute an acceptable result at the end of the year.
"It's impossible to predict where we'll be at the end of the year. If someone told me that we'll be fifth in the standings, I would be somewhat happy.
"But if we're less than fifth we may look back, we may not happy with that. We'll just do the best we can, and when we get in a position to win we will say it, but that's not realistic for the moment."
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