Well. The reigning World Champion is in trouble. Some say that Honda is the biggest embarrasement of the season, but I think Renault is a strong rival to them for that "title" and their fall has been even deeper taking into account that at which position they have been in previous years. Last year Renault finished 1-2 in Malaysia with Fisi scoring his last (will it stay his last?) win in F1:
But now Fisi has already said that Renault is not going to win any races this season in "normal" circumstances:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/57903

Before Malaysia some expected Renault to close the gap on the first ones, but in reality it has become worse. Renault was unable to match even Rosberg's Williams and Fisichella barely managed to beat Toyota. What is going on? There have to be several factors, also besides so-called Alonso effect. Some point out that the Michelin-Renault co-operation was very strong and by now they have lost it. But what else? Renault has the smallest budget among the factory teams. Maybe now it's time, when it begins to become a disadvantage? Arguably Renault's budget for this season is even smaller than in previous years that has made their task to compete against other factories even tougher.

Btw, I think there is an interesting parallel with Renault's F1 history. Recall what happened to Renault after Prost had left the team after 1983. The team had been in title contention and after that they started dramatically dropping backwards and their F1 campaign ended ingloriously after 1985. Maybe we are going to see a similar scenario again? In Prost's role is now Alonso and again there aren't many other major changes besides their #1 leaving the team. And again Renault has dropped significantly backwards. In 2005 Carlos Ghosn become the chief executive of Renault and Nissan Motors and he is said not to be very interested in motorsports. In 2005 he said about leaving F1: "As long as we are winning, then there isn't any problem." But now Renault is not winning any more. Is Renault - like in the mid-80s - again unable to dig out of the hole and leaves F1 with disappointment after for example 2008?