Despite persistent rumors about his joining forces with Ferrari, and his team’s lack of pace in the early going, Renault’s Fernando Alonso insists that he isn’t frustrated by less than stellar results in the first two races of the season.

While Alonso managed a fourth place finish in the crash-riddled Australian Grand Prix, he struggled to eighth at last weekend’s Malaysian race. That finish had the Spanish driver talking about the superiority of the Ferrari cars, and many pundits guessing that an early exit from Renault was in the cards.

But Alonso seems to be taking a long view of the situation, believing that Renault will improve with time. "It is something I knew from the winter testing,