It was announced on 10 December 2007 that Fernando Alonso had signed with Renault F1 for . Alonso drove alongside promoted test driver Nelson Piquet Jr., and was believed to have secured number one status within the team. The team started 2008 in a similar manner as the year before; Fernando Alonso managed to garner fourth at the opening Australian Grand Prix as a result of a mistake from previous Renault employee Heikki Kovalainen. However, form was still short of 2006 by a large degree over the first half of the 2008 season. The team brought new parts to the Spanish Grand Prix, including a new engine-cover, dubbed the "Shark-fin", similar to the one introduced by Red Bull on their RB4. Alonso managed to qualify on the front row for that race on a light fuel-load, yet retired with an engine-failure halfway through. Alonso's front row qualifying performance in Spain was a rare moment of achievement from the former World Champion. Both cars retired at the Canadian Grand Prix and Nelson Piquet Jr., who retired from six of the first nine races, failed to score until the French Grand Prix.