Cyril Abiteboul has praised the Sahara Force India F1 Team for what they have achieved on a limited budget and feels this is the blueprint of what his Renault Sport Formula 1 Team should follow.
Before the 2017 season, Abiteboul was quoted to say that ‘most of the car-build budget of a Force India will be gone by now, just to cope with the new regulations’ and that Renault should be ‘easily capable of beating teams like Haas and Force India and so on’ due to having a bigger budget.
However, Force India was easily the fourth best team on the grid in 2017, finishing one hundred and thirty points clear of Renault, who ended the year sixth, and Abiteboul feels the respect he has for the team has gone up after such a stellar year for the Silverstone-based outfit.
“Frankly I think my words were wrongly represented because I’ve always had huge respect for Force India and continue to have huge respect for Force India,” said Abiteboul to Motorsport.com. “That respect is only greater after 2017.
“They have shown that with very limited resources they’ve been capable of generating huge performance. This is on the back of a great driver line-up, and also on the back of what is still the best power unit in the field.
“There is absolutely no magic. They are also showing that this stability they have demonstrated over the years is what is giving them the capacity to be extremely efficient from a cost perspective.
“For me, it’s an example to follow, and has always been an example to follow, but I want us to be in a position to fight with them next year. That will be an achievement, if we are capable of overtaking them in the championship.”
