Cyril Abiteboul: “The concept of our chassis is good”

Renault F1 Team is one of the teams having progressed in terms of mileage covered between the two four-day testing sessions in Spain. To explain the loss of driving time in the first week, the breakage of a rear wing on the R.S.19 then driven by Daniel Ricciardo.

Almost a hundred additional laps completed this week, which allowed Renault to reach the second total behind Mercedes, but above all to confirm the concepts defined for this 2019 season.

Renault therefore believes it has a solid working base before the first event in Melbourne, Australia, in mid-March.

“Overall we have excellent correlation and cooperation between the circuit and our factories, indicated Cyril Abiteboul, director of Renault Sport Racing. We have collected important information and We have established that the performance of our engine meets our expectations.

In addition, the concept of our chassis is good. We must now build on these foundations and continue to improve our performance. The main goal of winter testing is to evaluate parts to their limits and some things worked better than others. It's part of the game.

Nico and Daniel provided constructive feedback throughout the fortnight, sharing the wheel each day and helping our engineering team make progress where needed. »

Nico Hulkenberg, the most experienced with Renault, was notably able to see the evolution between the car R.S.18 from the end of 2018 and this R.S19, yet at the start of its development.

“We have made good progress since last year, and in particular on the powertrain, specifies the German. Our reliability has been good. We had a few small issues here and there, but the team handled it very well and we were able to complete a lot of laps.

We know it's extremely tight with the competition, but we just want to focus on ourselves. We head into Melbourne relatively confident, but in the meantime we have a lot to analyze to make sure we maximize the car's potential. »