Renault "have 60 percent less budget than Mercedes"

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul has revealed that his team have "60 per cent less spending power" than Mercedes, but he sees this as an advantage once the budget cap for the teams kicks in.

The French team finished the 2018 season in fourth place with relative comfort, with Haas F1 coming in fifth 29 points behind Renault. Still, the gap to the top three was massive - almost 300 points. The gap to championship winners Mercedes was a whopping 533 points.

Abiteboul explains that the main reason for this is the colossal difference in budgets.

“The budget we’re operating on is about 60 per cent less than what Mercedes is spending," Abiteboul told Auto Motor und Sport. "That’s a handicap, but when the budget cap comes, this handicap becomes a strength.”

“To catch up with what Mercedes is currently spending would be a huge challenge. The numbers that the top teams spend are unacceptable and we have to protect these teams from themselves.”

With the massive difference in spending power, Mercedes currently out-perform Renault by almost a second per lap on a hot-lap set-up. Abiteboul intends to reduce this deficit significantly, despite the lack of cash.

“At the moment we are down 1.5 per cent on the top lap time. We need to reduce that by 50 per cent. We do not want to be outclassed next year on race pace.”

“In qualifying, we estimate our deficit to be 40 kilowatts. That’s significant, but with a customer engine from Mercedes or Ferrari, we would have qualified in seventh place in Abu Dhabi, which also shows that we have a better chassis than our competitors. But not as good as the three top teams.

“Therefore, the first focus is on engine development. I do not want to have to say next year that we missed too much in qualifying. There is no reason why we should not close the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari with the engine over the winter. It will take a little longer with the chassis.”