Source: Renault F1 Media

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Renault admit they underestimated rivals' turbo-hybrid engine devlopment

Renault admit they underestimated rivals' turbo-hybrid engine devlopment

13-08-2018 10:00
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Bobby Vincent

Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul admits that his team underestimated the devlopment of the current engines and says they will take bigger risks to try and put this right.

It's now Formula One's fifth season using the V6 turbo-hybrids, half a decade of Mercedes dominance and Ferrari recently overtaking Abiteboul's Renault team as they go toe-to-toe with Mercedes.

Abiteboul has said that Ferrari's big progress has made Renault now want to be more aggressive with their engine devlopment.

"I believe indeed that we underestimated the potential of the current engine regulations, let's put it this way," Abiteboul told Autosport.

"We are now four years into this engine regulation and after four years you would expect that you would see the flattening out of the development curve.

"(We) sort of saw that from Mercedes. Without opening up a different debate, we have been amazed by Ferrari's very recent improvement, which shows it's possible.

"We don't know how, but it's possible. That's not something that we were expecting to have to do in this period of time.

"We need to accept to have bigger steps, take more risks, but those risks obviously have to be mitigated because we cannot afford to come with a product that is compromising reliabilty."

Renault have recently announced the signing of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, in a move that shocked all of the sport, as they look to be fighting for titles once again.