Abiteboul: "We were absolutely unprepared for this challenge"

Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul says no one was prepared for the conditions in which the F1 teams find themselves. Like several teams, Renault has chosen to test before the season really starts.

"The challenges (are ones) that we were absolutely not prepared to face — we have all reacted with our guts. It’s completely uncharted territory. We have not been prepared for these circumstances at school or by the experience of life", Abiteboul is quoted by RACER.

Abiteboul says that he enjoyed the transparency and openness with which everyone reacted during this difficult situation: "In a world where sometimes it feels like people keep their cards close to their chest, for once everyone opened themselves up and I think we have been able to accomplish an awful lot with partners, with staff, with suppliers, simply because the situation was commanding a business behavior or a business ethos completely different to what happens normally."

"To a certain degree, frankly, I think I have found certain things much more healthy, much more direct and much more transparent", continues the Frenchman. He believes that, thanks to this openness, everyone has been able to take up the challenge much more easily.

"That’s what I liked about that situation — that it was bigger than all of us which we are all a part of and we’ve done so much. I would like to think that some people are starting to think about how they would like the world to change after that", concludes Abiteboul.