Improved reliability Renault’s first aim
Improving reliability is Renault’s first goal of the 2018 season.
The team finished sixth in the constructors’ championship, more than 300 points behind customer team Red Bull Racing, and faced numerous reliability problems with the engine and chassis.
In a bid to close the gap to the front of the field, Renault’s first aim of 2018 is to improve its milage in the winter test.
“We need to focus on what matters, on what counted, this year, which is in particular the first goal – to have a very reliable car as soon as the winter tests,” F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul told Autosport.
“We want to be right up there in terms of mileage.
“We have not defined the target next year in terms of the championship, but the first target we have set ourselves is to be top three in terms of mileage for the winter tests.”
At the start of 2017, Renault was eighth in terms of milage. To reach third in the order, the team would have needed to have completed 500 more laps.
Renault advisor Alain Prost believes the poor reliability held back the team during the season.
“At the end of the second part of the season, we were very close to being – most of the time – the fourth team in terms of performance,” Prost told Autosport.
“We had reliability problems, and when you have reliability problems, you have to go down in terms of performance.
“It’s not an excuse, but what we showed in Abu Dhabi was when we put everything together, with the pressure we had, we managed to do it.
“If we wanted to, we could go a little bit more, but we wanted to be a little bit safe.”