Cyril Abiteboul: “A lot of effort”

From the winter tests last February in Jerez, Renault Sport understood that the 2014 season in F1 would be complicated. The French engine manufacturer, dominator at the end of the era of naturally aspirated V8s, saw the turbo/hybrid V6 Mercedes completely disrupt the hierarchy. French Cyril Abiteboul, Managing Director of Renault Sport F1, also confides in our latest issue that the tricolor V6 “was not above suspicion. »

Despite the initial difficulties, and thanks to their partner Red Bull Racing, the men of Viruses-Châtillon were able to raise the bar, gleaning three successes with Daniel Ricciardo, the only driver to have won a race this year apart from the World Champion's Mercedes W05 Hybrid Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. “The entire Viry team and our associates? the stables as our technical partners? have invested a huge amount of effort to achieve such progress in such a short time. We have revised our objectives and made a whole series of developments in order to find reliability and performance more in line with our expectations. Our three victories and our great harvest of points underline and reward our hard work. » concludes Abiteboul on the Renault Sport website.

Enough to do better than Ferrari, unable this season to bring home the slightest trophy Maranello.

Find our file dedicated to the first season of the V6 turbo / hybrid era of F1 engine manufacturers, with the full interview with Cyril Abiteboul, in issue 1989 of AUTOhebdo, already available in digital version, and on newsstands tomorrow.