Renault Sport Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul admits the French manufacturer must never find itself in the position of having to turn down engine performance to avoid failures as they have done towards the end of this season.
All three teams using Renault power units were forced to adopt restrictions in Brazil after a number of problems in recent races, including six alone for Toro Rosso alone in Mexico and Interlagos, leading to a war of words breaking out between Abiteboul and team boss at the Italian outfit Franz Tost.
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner described the situation as a “scrapheap challenge” to find enough working parts to carry them until the end of the season and the Renault Managing Director concedes it isn’t good enough.
“We knew we were in a position where we had to sacrifice a bit of performance in order to increase the reliability,” he told Autosport. “It’s not a nice situation to be in.
“It was a bit of a savourless race for us [in Brazil] and actually it’s a bit bitter because we know there is much more potential. We just need to make sure it doesn’t happen again and that we don’t have to choose between performance and reliability.
“If we want to race in F1, we need both.”
What made the spat with Toro Rosso more intense is the close battle they and the works Renault team are in along with Haas for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, a position that will carry a lot in terms of prize money.
Currently, it is the junior Red Bull team in that position with four points more than their Enstone rivals and six more than the American outfit. Renault has been the better of the three midfield teams for much of the year but will need a seventh place to move ahead, a finish they know they can’t achieve being conservative.
“On one hand, we would like and could afford to be aggressive because if you’re not aggressive at the last race when are you going to be?” Abiteboul admitted. “At the same time, we know Haas is very close in the championship so we need to take a balanced approach.”