14/10/2017
NEWS STORY
Cyril Abiteboul, Renault Sport Racing Managing Director: Austin is the seventeenth race on the 2017 calendar and the first of three races in the Americas as we concentrate on reaching our objective and finishing the season on a bright note.
I want to start by mentioning Carlos' arrival to the team. We would like to thank Jolyon for his efforts with the Renault Sport team over the last two seasons. He has worked extremely hard to help the team and we have always appreciated his professionalism and loyalty. We wish him the very best for his future.
We welcome Carlos to the team ready for the US Grand Prix and we are looking forward to working with him. His arrival is important for the remainder of this season, and also for our 2018 season preparations. It gives us an advantage to use these final four races with Carlos in the car as a transitional period and get him up to speed with the car and the team.
The US Grand Prix is an important race for us, as we remain in the fight for fifth place in the Constructors' standings. We are hugely disappointed to go back-to-back races without scoring a point, which has benefitted our rival teams. Our strategy with both cars on Sunday in Japan put us into a good position, but a flap pivot bracket failed on the rear wing of Nico's car and forced him out. We are missing out on points due to reliability and it's essential that we have an error-free weekend in Austin. We must not let anything go and we head into the final four races with a different dynamic. The car will benefit from upgrades and it's therefore essential we score points.
Again, like in Malaysia, it was positive to see Red Bull on the podium once more in Japan. This demonstrates the Renault engine is working well on race day and is getting closer to the top step once again.
Formula 1 will join together with the Susan G. Komen organisation over the weekend in Austin to promote awareness for breast cancer. With the US Grand Prix coinciding with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we will be wearing the colour pink with pride. This will include staff members at the track wearing pink APL trainers, as well as both cars designed with some special, pink features.
Technical Director Nick Chester discusses the challenges of Austin as the season heads into the final furlong.
What are your thoughts on the Circuit of the Americas?
Nick Chester: It's an exciting track with a real mixture of corners. The first sector is quite high speed except for the uphill hairpin of turn one. After that, it's right, left, right through the S-like bends at high speed. Then you've got a decent back straight and sector three has some low speed sections which will be hard on the rear tyres. It's a real blend of interesting corners which means it's hard to get a good balance all the way around. We have a fairly decent knowledge of the track and a good understanding of the varying temperatures throughout the day which again affect car balance.
Do we have any bodywork updates for Austin?
NC: We will have some bodywork updates to the bargeboards and diffuser, as well as updated drum flicks. We're still bringing updates to the R.S.17 whenever we can.
How do you reflect on Suzuka?
NC: Firstly, it was a shame not to send Jolyon off on a bright note and we wish him all the best with his future endeavours. It's disappointing to not bring points home but there are some strong positives from the weekend. Both cars had good starts, pace in clear air was competitive and tyre wear and degradation were well under control. The strategy choice was good and we would have had a comfortable eighth place with a chance at the Force Indias without the excursion and flap pivot bracket failure. These things can happen and we will be doing our best to make sure it doesn't happen again.