F1 News

Chester aware of competition despite improvements

Chester aware of competition despite improvements

12-03-2019 13:50

Renault finished best of the rest in 2018 and with the new signing of Daniel Ricciardo they are looking to progress further but Nick Chester is well aware of the competition they face.

Renault finished a comfortable fourth last season with the line up of Carlos Sainz Jr and Nico Hulkenberg ending the season with 122 points. Sainz has since moved to McLaren but with Daniel Ricciardo and a constantly improving power unit, Renault are confident of improving over the coming season.

Despite the optimism surrounding their ever-improving engine, Nick Chester is aware of the challenges they face from their opponents: "The competition looks very tight.

“From year to year, the competitive environment evolves, and can no longer rely on the weaknesses of our direct opponents.

“We knew that the new regulations were likely to narrow the gap, and that seems to be the case.”

Renault had a solid pre-season testing in Barcelona despite Ricciardo having a rear wing failure and Chester admitted the team have plenty of data to work with.

"From our side, we had two good weeks of pre-season testing covering a lot of kilometres and an extensive program on different elements as planned.”