Renault Aware that Fighting for an F1 Championship is Far Away

The Renault F1 team endured a difficult race at the Chinese GP 2019 as their miserable start continues. In three races, they have managed to score points on two occasions out of a potential 6. In both those instances, only one Renault car has managed to reach the chequered flag.

Renault team boss, Cyril Abiteboul has confessed that it could take years before the French manufacturer can mount a serious challenge for the title. Inspite of seemingly fixing their reliability issues, Nico Hulkenberg still retired from the race. Abiteboul spoke up on the issues faced by the German.

“Nico had a problem around the MGU-K,” Abiteboul revealed, speaking to France’s Auto Hebdo. “It is difficult because it means that we are not totally out of our reliability problems. It was a software problem that is related to all the changes we have made to react to the glitches of the beginning of the season.”

Fortunately, it wasn’t all doom and gloom as Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault survived and finished 7th. The points finish was a welcome sign after retiring for two races in a row. In Australia, Ricciardo went out of the race after disintegrating his front wing on a drain at the race start.

In Bahrain, both Renault cars inexplicably ground to a halt, within a lap of each other and coincidentally, in the same area. Now, in China, the trademark smile from Ricciardo is slowly returning with a 7th place finish.

“It’s good for the team but a frustrating race,” Abiteboul continued. “It does allow us to forget Bahrain and start like in Melbourne, where Nico was seventh. But we must do better in all aspects. We are a little slower than we would have liked, but we have to work, not complain. It’s a multiyear job to reduce and then close the gap.”