Nico Hülkenberg has said the Renault F1 Team must be ambitious and make the most of the 2019 regulation changes if they’re to match Formula 1‘s top three teams.
Despite 2018 yielding their best result since returning to the sport, fourth place in the constructors championship, the Enstone-based squad never had the pace to challenge Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. To change that, Hülkenberg believes it’s vital that the team capitalise on the front wing changes introduced this year.
“Obviously the new front wing is kind of a soft reset for next year, as it’s quite different for the cars.” the German said, speaking to Motorsport.com. “So it’s really hard to gauge, but of course that’s where need to go, what we need to aim at.
“We need to eat a lot of the gap away and eat into it. As a factory team, we need to aim at making a big step.”
Renault have been on an upward trajectory since they came back to F1, finishing ninth in 2016, sixth in 2017 and claiming the prize as ‘best of the rest’ in 2018.
“I think that’s a healthy and good development. I think we’ve made a lot of good progress in a lot of areas, especially in team structure and putting the team in the right place to grow and to build in the next two years,” said Hülkenberg.
“On the technical side, development side – just on the car – this year was not quite to our ambitions and what we were looking for. So that’s something we have to work on and get better at next year.”
