Renault are confident they can fight for points in Australia this weekend after making several updates to the R30.
The team failed to score points in last week's race in Bahrain. Robert Kubica started ninth and finished 11th after taking a knock on the opening lap while his rookie team-mate Vitaly Petrov was 17th on the grid and retired with a tyre problem.
Things though are looking up for the French squad and Permaine hopes the updates will help them to get both drivers into the final qualifying round on Saturday.
"The target is to get both drivers into Q3," he said. "I think that's a realistic target given our competitiveness. If we can do that then both drivers should be capable of fighting for points.
"We have some new aero parts for Melbourne, which should give us a bit more performance. There's a new front wing and a new part on the rear wing, which improves our overall downforce."
Kubica admits that Bahrain was always going to be tough for the team, but they hope to extract the car's full potential in Melbourne.
"Overall, before the start of the season, I had the feeling that Melbourne would be a better circuit for us than Bahrain," he said. "Now that we have seen the other cars running and collected more information about where we stand, I think even more that it will be a good circuit for us.
"The circuit is very low grip at the start of the weekend and you need good mechanical grip, braking stability and ride, so I hope we can put in a strong performance and achieve the car's full potential."
