Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul admits that it’s awkward that the squad’s primary rival in the constructors standings is their own customer team.
McLaren switched to Renault power units in 2018 after stormy three-year partnership with Honda. The new hook-up has been a big success this year with McLaren currently in fourth place in the constructors championship, putting them 18 points ahead of Renault in the standings.
Abiteboul acknowledges that it’s not ideal for Renault to be trailing the one team on the grid using the same power units as themselves.
- Renault set for whole new aero philosophy for 2020 – Ricciardo
“It’s a bit of an awkward situation,” he told Motorsport.com. “But clearly McLaren’s resurrection is also due to a combination of a resurgence on the power unit side and on the chassis side.
“I think they have a better chassis in certain conditions,” he conceded, before going on to insist that overall he felt that the R.S.19 was the better package at most venues.
“We have a better car overall and a better chassis in the other conditions,” he said. “That’s a fact. So I think it’s going to be about track characteristics and who is capable of seizing the opportunity offered by the track.”
Renault certainly came out on top at the most recent race in Monza, where Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively. McLaren meanwhile managed just one point from Lando Norris finishing in tenth after Carlos Sainz’ early retirement.
That’s helped Renault halve the gap to McLaren in the championship, with seven races to go in 2019 including this weekend’s visit to Singapore.
“It was the target to finish fourth, and it remains the target,” said Abiteboul. “It’s good to have targets that are challenging to achieve, because that keeps us on our toes.
© Renault F1