Formula 1

Renault turn focus on development of 2017 car

1 Mins read
Cyril Abiteboul - Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd

After a disappointing season so far, the Renault Sport F1 has decided to focus their full attention on 2017 and the huge change in regulations.

The French manufacturer have only managed to score six points this season and will put all their resources into making the 2017 car as competitive as possible and return to winning ways.

Renault F1 chief Cyril Abiteboul said that all efforts were now on the team’s 2017 campaign, with work to improve Enstone already underway.

“The team and the car has not evolved in the way that we wanted it to,” said Abiteboul to Motorsport.com. “The reason we wanted to put a little bit of development into this year, not an awful lot, just a little bit, was to understand a bit better the structure. That is what we have done.

“We have all the lessons that we wanted. We have the assessment that we wanted and now we can completely focus on 2017, so that is what has happened. We are now fully on 2017.

“The work and the effort that have been put in 2016 have not been wasted because of the current performance. They were also done on purpose in order to have a good assessment of the team and of the company.”

Albiteboul says that the team needs investment if they want to improve the chassis.

“I don’t want to single out one particular group of people – but everyone will know what is the prevailing factor in chassis performance today,” he said.

“Now that the power units are starting to come in a narrower bandwidth, it is the good old aero/mechanical grip/tyre understanding that is starting to enter into play.

“That will be the focus and that is where we will be focusing our investment because as a sign of Renault’s commitment we will be massively investing into the factory, extending the building, renewing completely the machine shop and so on and so forth.

“We know the areas of weakness, and it is certainly not financial resources. That is one thing where we are absolutely well resourced by Renault, plus we have the stability.

“I will never let anyone think we are where we are because we are lacking financial resources – that is completely inaccurate.”

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