Renault F1 Team boss Cyril Abiteboul said he and the team “need to learn to lose” after a difficult 2019 campaign.
After securing fourth place in the 2018 Constructors’ Championship, the French outfit went in to the 2019 season hopeful they would be able to close the gap to their rivals, Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.
This didn’t go as planned, however, meaning the team had to settle for fifth in the Championship, behind midfield rival the McLaren F1 Team, who they are also supplying with power units.
Speaking to MotorsportMagazine.com, he said: “Formula 1 is a tough sport, where you can’t hide as a team principal. I’ve grown up, but I also need to keep improving my own package. It’s like everyone.
“I’m a bit Latin, I’m not just French. I’m from the southern part of France. I’m extremely emotional, I take things seriously.
“I love racing but I struggle to live with the fact we are losing every weekend, and that’s fact. Even though we are progressing, we are losing every single weekend. Number two is the first of the losers.
“It’s a change for me. I need to learn to lose, but I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that I want to win, and that appetite for winning is still growing with these years of not winning.”
Abiteboul is determined to keep pushing forward until Renault is back into their winning ways, and is adamant he will not leave the team until they are.
“I’ll do that when I win. That’s the challenge, a question mark.
“Every single year that goes by, we are getting stronger, even this year. We are stronger this year for finishing fifth than we were last year in finishing fourth. I’ve no doubt about that, and that’s what matters.
“And every year we are stronger brings us closer to the ultimate goal, which is to win, which is my individual goal. Whether I make it happen or not is another story.
“But I can tell you that right now I’m not close to retiring unless I feel it’s not possible, or unless we have achieved it, and I am confident that one day this team will win. We’ve done it before, and we will do it again,” he concluded.
