Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul claims his team is competing on similar if not fewer resources than their midfield rivals.
The French manufacturer is enduring a difficult start to 2019 with only two points results to their name, leaving them a lowly eighth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Certainly, it’s a long way off the predictions from pre-season that Renault could dominantly lead the midfield, close the gap to the top three teams and maybe even claim a podium.
“No, I never said that,” Abiteboul told Spain’s SoyMotor about a top three finish. “This year the objective is very clear. It may be people from my organization who said that, but never me.
“People always ask when we will do podiums, but podiums in simple conditions are not possible this year.
“We would like to, but if you look at how things are in Formula 1, there has never been so much stability in the winners of the races. Since 2014, only on a couple of occasions has another team [not Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari] been on the podium.
“We all agree that there is a big problem in Formula 1, but it is not a problem just for Renault, but for Formula 1 [as a whole].”
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It was then suggested to Abiteboul that Renault had fallen short in terms of development with their 2019 car, using the example of customer team McLaren whom it was suggested had similar resources.
“[McLaren has] quite a lot more!” he responded.
“Do you know how much we spend here? We operate with the budget of Toro Rosso and we do not believe that putting more money makes the difference.
“Instead of wasting a lot of resources, we can take a look at McLaren because I know their numbers and I can tell you they have a few hundred people more than us. How far are they from us? Makes sense? Not for now.
“And we will never have the [extra] 150m Euros that we need to be like Mercedes because it does not make any sense. It does not correspond to the value of Formula 1 for us.”
That approach, while sensible, does make achieving success in the current F1 climate very difficult, however, it is the possibility of what is to come that stops Renault changing course.
“We prefer to focus on 2021 when there will be a limit on what you can spend,” Abiteboul explained.
“If 2021 were much further away, it would be a different situation, but we are talking about something that is 18 months away.”
