Renault are on track to half its performance deficit to rival engine manufacturer Mercedes, according to Renault Sport F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul.
The supplier to Red Bull and Toro Rosso is vying to catch up after a disappointing 2014 season which saw it take just three victories compared to Mercedes’ 16.
“Regarding performance, of course it’s still a bit early to make a proper judgement as it’s always relative and we don’t know what the competition is doing,” explained Abiteboul.
“On our side, we didn’t spend the test chasing lap times. Such aggressive and uncompromising development programmes, both in terms of chassis and the power unit, as well as new parts arriving at the last minute, also make it difficult to draw conclusions.
“Saying that, we’re still confident of achieving our target: reducing our deficit to Mercedes by half for the first grand prix.”
Rémi Taffin, director of operations, admitted that that ultimately isn’t enough, and they’re still chasing performance with a number of key components coming at the next test.
“From a technical standpoint we’re ready for Melbourne; everything has been checked. But we’re still not producing the level of performance that we’d like to,” he said. “That’s something we’ll be focusing on at the final round of official testing this week, but at least we’re starting from a solid base.
“We’ve continued to shake down parts for Melbourne but are still missing some components and software that would allow us to fully optimise the power unit.
“So far we have pushed the ERS to its limits, but also focused our efforts around the internal combustion engine and turbo. It’s for those last two elements that we’re awaiting the newly developed components and software.”
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