Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul anticipates a head-to-head battle with McLaren for fourth in the Constructors' standings.
The French manufacturer moved to just three points behind their customer team after their season's best sixth and seventh place in Canada.
Last Sunday at Paul Ricard though, McLaren hit back at Carlos Sainz claimed sixth with Lando Norris unfortunate as late mechanical issues dropped him to ninth.
"We've seen that we are just as quick if not quicker than McLaren when not held back, but obviously McLaren was so much faster in qualifying, and that's what matters the most in current F1," Abiteboul said, reflecting on the French GP.
"Having said that we are not miles away, and we were much faster than them in Montreal. What I expect is to see an interesting battle with McLaren for the remainder of the season."
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A key reason for the two teams stretching away from the chasing pack has been improvements to the engine, as the lack of single lap performance, in particular, is now much less of a weakness.
"Now we can safely say that we have one of the best engines in Formula 1. Nevertheless, we still need to improve to be able to compete with Ferrari," advisor Alain Prost recently told Le Figaro.
But looking ahead to this weekend in Austria, the Renault chief expects their race pace to give them the edge over McLaren once again.
"On different compounds and on the longer runs, we are much more competitive against them and the rest of the field," Abiteboul explained.
"That's going to be the focus in Austria, where probably it's going to be extremely hot, and we know the track can be extremely damaging for the tyres."
