Renault has recognised “weaker points” of 2019 F1 car

Renault has recognised the “weaker points” of its 2019 Formula 1 car that it needs to address moving forwards, according to team principal Cyril Abiteboul.

The French manufacturer has been out-performed by customer team McLaren so far during the opening 10 rounds of the season at finds itself 21 points behind the Woking squad in the battle for midfield supremacy heading towards the summer break.

A two-car points finish at the British Grand Prix last time out was not enough to cut the gap to McLaren, as former Renault driver Carlos Sainz Jr held off Daniel Ricciardo to take sixth place.

“We can be reasonably satisfied to have put both cars into the points in Silverstone after yet another difficult Austrian Grand Prix, an event that has not suited us year on year,” Abiteboul said.

“We showed some good form throughout the weekend in Britain, with Daniel and Nico in Q3 and ultimately an unpredictable race in which we could have and should have scored even more points.

“On the whole, we showed our potential at a track which has, under recent regulations, become a real temple for engine power. However, we recognise there are still areas where we need to improve and we are concentrating on these weaker points.

“Hockenheim and the Hungaroring should suit our package better although the extreme temperatures we expect to encounter may present challenges for the engine or tyres - a little like in Austria - we will do our best to achieve the best results possible.”

Renault technical director Nick Chester said the team is working hard to find improvements in medium-to-high-speed corners.

“We had a pretty good balance on the car in Silverstone,” he explained. “The drivers were happy, and we could run a fairly light wing level.

“The car was good in low-speed, which we know it often is. Hockenheim does have a number of lower speed corners.

“Silverstone has a bit of medium to high-speed and we found our usual problems there, which we’re working on to find improvements. We had good race pace and our race balance was strong in Silverstone.”

Nico Hulkenberg, who finished three places behind teammate Ricciardo in 10th at Silverstone, said he is motivated to go better than his strong seventh-place finish last year at Hockenheim.

“We always strive for better and for more and maybe we left something on the table [at Silverstone],” Hulkenberg conceded.

“It was a difficult race on my side with a number of things going on, so to still finish tenth was strong. We found some improvements there, which we need to build on heading into this back-to-back fortnight with Germany and Hungary.”