Renault on Red Bull split: "Opportunity and a threat"

Renault's Martin Budkowski has revealed he's "very optimistic" about the French team's engine for the 2019 season, even though he concedes Honda, who will now power Red Bull Racing, could prove to be a threat.

Budkowski, who is Renault's new executive director after making the switch from the FIA, thinks it's too early to say where the engine stands exactly as it hasn't been finished yet, but he can't help but feel excited about the performance levels it could bring.

"The engine is like the chassis side - it’s never finished until you close the engine that goes to the first race," he explained to Crash.net.

“It is very promising in terms of performance but we still have to cross the t’s and dot the I’s in terms of reliability and durability etc, which we are doing now in Viry-Chatillon. 

“We are still doing work on the engines that will start the year, and in the end, performance and reliability is a trade-off. You can extract more performance from any engine but it might not last the number of races, the number of sessions you want it to. 

“So we will have to see where that cursor stops in terms of performance versus reliability. But we are optimistic.” 

In Red Bull, Renault will lose its most successful ally in 2019, as the Austrian outfit have decided to switch to Honda after 12 years of marriage with Renault. Renault will definitely keep an eye on their progress, Budkowski revealed.

“Definitely any kind of shake-up is an opportunity. It’s a threat as well. We are making progress on our engine development. 

“I’m sure Honda, Mercedes and Ferrari are all making progress as well. In relative terms, we’ll see where they end up.”