Daniel Ricciardo says Renault need to adapt Red Bull's winning mentality to make the next step up the Formula 1 grid.
The Australian has had a mixed first half-season with the Enstone-based outfit, but primarily, results have been disappointing as Renault remain stuck in the midfield.
Ricciardo himself admits he expected more and does think the lack of major success is playing a role in holding Renault back.
“From Day 1 when I walked in there were already quite a few things already in place, from an engineering point of view and the structure of personnel and meetings,” he was quoted by GPFans.
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“[There was] analysis of everything, tyre analysis, chassis development, all this, but I’d say that the big thing I probably felt was when I joined Red Bull, they were already winners.
“I noticed when I came here [to Renault] there was a bit of a lack of confidence because they had not won in a long time.
“It is not arrogance, just in the team there is a certain level of confidence or pride, which I didn’t feel was at Red Bull’s level. For good reason, but we are trying to get that going.”
Crucial to that is gaining momentum and that has been Renault's problem too, with Ricciardo pointing to the inability to build on their best weekend of the season so far.
“In Canada, that was a moment I thought things had really changed,” he admits.
“We qualified fourth and everyone was happy, but it wasn’t like we’d won the world title. It was like, alright we belong here now, and this is…so there was a real switch, that is half the battle with anything.
“As a driver as well, we are all talented at this level, but it is like that mentality: do you have what it takes to really believe that you can do it.
“It is the same with the team, mechanics, engineers, if they’ve got that mentality to really believe they can make they step, then that’s half the battle. That’s a big thing I’ve seen, which is positive.”
