Nico Hulkenberg has praised the progress made by his Renault team during 2017, claiming the French manufacturer has done “better than expected”.
Development was always the main aim for the team this season, as they continue to rebuild their works operation at Enstone after picking up the leftovers of the Lotus team at the end of 2015.
After struggling towards the back with Sauber last year, heading into the closing stretch Renault, mostly through their German driver, is now regularly contending to be the fourth-placed team in the pecking order.
Reliability and the reliance on Hulkenberg to score most of the points, means they sit seventh in the Constructors’ Championship battling with Toro Rosso and Haas, but the 30-year-old, who was brought in to spearhead their renaissance from Force India this season is confident in the team’s path.
“I have full trust and belief in it. I think we’re on a good route,” Hulkenberg claimed. “There is still plenty to do as we know, but things are definitely moving in the right direction.
“In terms of development, from the start of the year to now, I think we have done better than expected, at least the expectations I personally had. I think it’s been pretty good so far this year.”
Expectations are high that they can be the top midfield outfit over the closing six races, starting with the final F1 race at Sepang next weekend.
“We ought to go quite well in Malaysia with the mixture of low, medium and high-speed corners,” Technical Director Nick Chester said in a preview. “We should be the fourth quickest car again.”
On the development side, Chester continued by revealing further updates are coming to the car, despite entering the time of year when many switch focus to the following year’s design.
“A few things for Malaysia are on the way including some tighter rear bodywork which is the main development,” he explained. This will combine with some set-up progress we’ve been making, in particular over the past few races.
“Overall the car is working reasonably well at this stage in the season.”
The outlook for Renault in 2018 also changed following the news in Singapore that McLaren will be using their engines from next season, but Hulkenberg only expects that to be a motivator for the works team going forward.
“They have a strong package now and if we give them our power unit, for sure they will be one of our main competition next year I expect,” he commented. “We need to do a good job over the winter.”
The team will also have the arrival of Carlos Sainz on loan from the Red Bull stable to create one of the strongest partnerships outside the top three on the grid next season.
