Adrian Newey admits he has seen encouraging signs coming from the Renault camp as he continues his work on the 2017 Red Bull Racing machine.
After a trying 2015 that saw Red Bull heavily criticise Renault after being both unreliable and uncompetitive, 2016 was a much better year for the partnership, with two wins coming the way of the team, and Chief Technical Officer Newey is hoping the progress continues into the new season, and with what he has seen, this could indeed be the case.
“Renault have been working very hard over the winter,” said Newey at Autosport International. “I know their numbers for this year, it’s a good step forwards.
“As always, the same as with us [on the chassis side], what we don’t know is what our rivals have been up to. Renault are definitely going in a very good direction at the moment.
“Two years ago we ended up in the position where they made no progress over the winter – if anything they actually went slightly backwards compared to the first year with the hybrid.
“Last year they made very good progress through the season, still behind Mercedes and Ferrari, but closing the gap rather than the gap widening.”
