Following a strong opening race to the season, Renault Sport Formula One Team boss Cyril Abiteboul has made reliability his focus as Formula 1 heads to the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Neither works Renault cars nor the Renault customer teams of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and the McLaren F1 Team suffered from reliability issues during the opening round of the season in Australia.
And for Abiteboul, Renualt’s record-breaking result in Australia shows that the French manufacturer are “going in the right direction.”
“We did not have any reliability issues in Renault Sport Formula One Team, nor our two partner teams,” says Abiteboul. “The performance of the team was more or less where we expected and hoped for the first race.
“Ultimately the result was good; the first time that we have had both cars in the top ten since our return, and the first time in the history of Renault that six Renault-powered cars have finished in the points.
” This is a result we can be pleased with. As a first result of the year it is encouraging, but we have to be conscious of circumstances as the gaps between the top ten, and even beyond, are tiny.
“It did however confirm that we are going in the right direction and we need to build on this going forward.”
As Formula 1 heads into its first back-to-back race weekends of the year, Abiteboul is aware of how important continued reliability will be.
“Bahrain is the second race of the year and we need another trouble-free weekend, especially as we enter a double-header far away from our European base.”
