Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul admits he doesn’t know if the actual 2019 car will be ready for the start of pre-season testing.
Though the team launched the R.S.19 on Tuesday at Enstone, the car on show was really last year’s chassis fitted with the new-look wings for this season.
Instead, development continues with just a few days before the team heads to Barcelona with Abiteboul revealing an initial plan is also under threat.
“It’s super tight, but we still have good reason to believe that we will be able to test,” he told Autosport.
“If I share a little bit of a secret, we are due to do a shakedown on Saturday, during a filming day, and that may or may not take place as we speak. We are 100% sure of nothing.”
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The Renault chief blamed the late approval of the new aero rules for this season for the delay, suggesting other teams are in a similar situation, but also admitted the team had pushed development until the final possible moment.
“We know that there is a direct connection between the time you are spending in the wind tunnel and how competitive you are,” Abiteboul noted.
“We need to be constantly flirting with the red line, but we have maybe gone a bit over the red line. That is why my thoughts really are with production.
“We are massively working to get the parts ready for us to get them out of the door for us to be ready and testing.
“I think for next year on, we will have to be a bit more conservative because it is not just performance, it is reliability,” the Frenchman added.
“You don’t want to turn up and have to shakedown your car and realise that there is something that isn’t working. It is a balancing exercise.
“We have been a step too far, and we will maybe have to review it for next year.”