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Renault "disappointed" by gap with top three

13:42, 22 Apr 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Renault chief technical officer Bob Bell has admitted that he's disappointed by the substantial gap between the French team and the top three teams.

Renault is currently in its third year of their long-term plan to win a title again and they've made steady progress over these last years. Their target heading into the season was to finish fourth comfortably and possibly challenge the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Currently, they sit in fifth, trailing both of their customer teams. McLaren sits in fourth with three more points, while Red Bull sits in third with 30 more points.

"I would say we're disappointed that we're not further up," Bell admitted.

"We had hoped to take a bit of lap time out of the top three teams over the winter and we haven’t.

"If anything they might have moved further ahead, so we are a little bit disappointed about that.

"I think we are reasonably pleased with how we have positioned ourselves to McLaren, which we were very worried about when they came on board with the engine but clearly Toro Rosso and Haas have done a great job over the winter and are making life very difficult for us."

Even though the Renault budget is significantly smaller than the operating budgets of the teams above them, Bell insists that the gap in performance can't just be blamed on the lack of funds.

"I don't want to keep singing that song as an excuse but we are not quite as mature as the top three teams are and they have still got the edge when it comes to building a new car.”