Abiteboul: Lack of junior team is "preventing" Renault from being top team

Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul thinks the lack of a junior team within Formula 1 is preventing his own team and the likes of McLaren to reach the front of the grid in the sport, as the Frenchman explains a lack of engine customers won't change Renault's performance.

Since their return to F1 as a works team in 2016, Renault have consistently improved each year, before taking a step back this season compared to 2018, when they finished fourth in the constructors' standings.

The French side still has the ambition to climb back to the top of the grid where they once were. However, with Renault now losing their final engine customer in McLaren from 2021 onwards, it could be a step back for them. Abiteboul thinks otherwise, though, as he explains there is a different factor which is holding his side back.

"For me, the single biggest threat for both McLaren and Renault preventing us really to reach the top teams is not [the lack] of a customer team, but [of] a junior team and a B-team arrangement," Abiteboul told RaceFans.net.

With McLaren's deal ending at the end of 2020, Renault would become empty-handed in terms of customer teams, but Abiteboul reveals he's been in contact with a lot of potential new teams that would be interested in getting a power unit from the Enstone-based team.