Renault surprised McLaren wasn't its main rival in 2018

Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul has revealed he was surprised that McLaren wasn't its main rival in 2018.

Haas pushed Renault all the way in 2018; in the battle for fourth spot in the constructors' championship, with McLaren finishing down in seventh place.

McLaren signed a deal with Renault for the 2018 season after a disastrous spell with Honda beforehand, with many expecting the Woking-based side to be fighting for podiums during the season.

However, an aerodynamics problem with the MCL33 produced yet another underwhelming season for Stoffel Vandoorne, especially, and Fernando Alonso.

"Frankly, there were some surprises, and there were some frustrations," Abiteboul reflected to Autosport. "I am a bit surprised to fight against Haas for most of the season when I was expecting it to be against McLaren.

"Let's remember last year, when we announced McLaren, everybody told me 'you are crazy, you are going to be beaten by your customers'. We were very close to being beaten by a team that is a very new team, a young team, younger even than us, with a very different setup."

Abiteboul has insisted he can have no complaints with the job his team did this year, but is going to spend more time analysing the performance in the winter.

"It was a good season, and we can be sure of the progress the team is making," he added. "We shouldn't undervalue the effort and the achievement after three seasons moving from P9 to P4.

"I am not great at history but you would have to go back quite far to see a team achieving such an improvement. Having said that, obviously, I need to dig a bit further, to see how it was achieved, the competitiveness level, the competitive environment, who is just behind, who is ahead, and how far they are ahead.

"This is where we need to take stock and look at that in the eyes and see how it can affect our plans."