Renault Sport F1 Team racing director Frederic Vasseur believes the team are heading to the season-opener in Melbourne in relatively good shape.
After taking over Lotus F1 Team very late, it was a big challenge for the team to be in Barcelona for the first pre-season testing, but no major problems were encountered on for Renault, with the team prioritising how to get the most gains ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
With the team only starting in earnest back in December, Vasseur believes they need to be realistic about where they finish this season.
“It is very difficult to see where we are ahead of the start of the season,” said Vasseur. “We need to focus on our job and try to improve where we can rather than spending time analysing where we are in relative terms.
“It won’t be an easy task as we started very late for this season, but we will see for 2017. We will always aim to finish in the points, but bearing in mind that we only created the team in December, we need to be realistic and not start pointing the finger at anyone.”
Vasseur is pleased with both of their 2016 drivers, Jolyon Palmer and Kevin Magnussen, they are both focussed on the job.
“I am pleased with both drivers. They are young but ambitious, which will push us in a good way,” added Vasseur. “They are totally focussed on the job and have helped in direction over the first two tests.
“Jolyon had a few more reliability issues than Kevin during pre-season testing, but the overall feeling is that they are comfortable. They are fully focussed on extracting everything they can from the season and keeping the team motivated.”
