Massive performance gains for Renault engine

Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul was talking to motorsport.com when he revealed that the team has achieved massive performance gains ever in their history.

The Renault RS18, here being driven by Carlos Sainz, helped the team achieve 4th position in the 2018 F1 season.

Renault chief, Cyril Abiteboul seemed upbeat regarding the winter progress of the team back in the factory in Enstone. He claimed that the progress regarding the engine was the biggest he had ever seen. Not only that, in fact the gains achieved in the aero department were also the biggest ever witnessed in team's history.

"If I look, what I see is an acceleration everywhere,"

"The gains that we will be making on the engine are much bigger than we have ever done in a winter – much bigger – and the gains that we are currently doing in the wind tunnel are much bigger than we have ever done." said Abiteboul.

After a competitive season last year and a strong progress forward from where the team was in 2017 and 2016, Renault will now be eyeing the big 3 of Formula 1, expecting to leapfrog Red Bull in terms of performance and regularly challenging both the Mercedes and Ferrari.

Renault had a competitive season in 2018 in which it finished a commendable 4th in the final standings. Though, podiums lacked, the Enstone based outfit seemed confident as the leader of the midfield with often a comfortable advantage.

"But, we have to be careful on the wind tunnel side, the aero side, as there is a big change of regulation. You all know that when it happens there is a big reset: you lose [downforce] and you quickly catch up.

"So it is difficult to make a distinction between what is coming from the regulations and what is coming from the effect of the restructure.

"But if I look at our capacity to engineer, to develop, design and manufacture, it is an acceleration everywhere."

Cyril Abiteboul currently serves in the capacity of Managing Director at Renault Sport F1 team.

Abiteboul did mention that how careful the engineers were with the aero development given that there is big regulations change ahead for 2019 and anything can go wrong as well. He had words of applause for all the engineers who worked tirelessly to develop a strong challenger for the upcoming season.

"The car we have been operating this year is more or less a representation of where the team was 18 months ago," he said.

"There will be one or two generations of people who will have passed with the next generation of car that we will see next year, and that is frankly is why I am excited.

Cyril mentioned that the team had all the resources required in order to put together a car that put on a formidable challenge in 2019 and catapult the team in a forward direction.

We have a level of resource that is in my opinion good for what we need to do.

"There is stability of the organisation, there are new people and new faces that have finally joined us, and who understand the organisation, and are now working efficiently.

"So now it is positive, even if the challenge is huge."

Renault last month announced the launch date of its 2019 challenger. The RS19 will be revealed in Enstone on February 12th.

This article first appeared on Motorsport. Click here

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