04/05/2018
NEWS STORY
Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul reveals that in addition to the usual updates for the start of the European season, his team will have a new fuel.
"Azerbaijan delivered our best result to date since returning to the sport in 2016," said the Frenchman, referring to Carlos Sainz' fifth place finish in Baku.
"We appreciate it took special circumstances," he continued, clearly referring to the retirements of both Red Bulls and Valtteri Bottas' late puncture, not forgetting Nico Hulkenberg's crash, "but it does not take anything away from the fact we are now in a position to capitalise on any opportunities. Our progress is clearly illustrated in the data in a number of ways; for example our gap to pole has halved from last year.
"The start of the European season now needs to see a consolidation of that performance," he admitted. "We will be helped in Spain by a step on the engine side with new fuel and some aero tweaks to reflect the characteristics of the track.
"We hope this to be a move forward, but we also recognise that many other teams will bring upgrade packages too and Barcelona is well known to everyone. We need to push for points and that fourth position in the Constructors’ Championship, which is well within our grasp now but I expect it to be a lot tighter from now on in."
"Traditionally Barcelona has been where all the teams have brought upgrades; usually a major aerodynamic upgrade," adds chief technical officer, Bob Bell. "This year, the first big aero upgrade package was in Baku. In Barcelona, we’ll have less brand new elements.
"For the foreseeable races, we have upgrades coming at each race, some small, some bigger.
"The performance of the car has been pretty much where we thought it would be from winter testing," he adds. "We have a very stable platform, which is a great place to be in order to develop and make the car better and better as the season progresses.
"Confidence is up, and we believe we can fight where we want to be. It’s never easy, it’s hard fought and we have to push hard all year to get the developments coming and keep us ahead of the rest of the midfield pack. We’re in a good place with a solid foundation."