Nico Hulkenberg believes Renault must focus on staying ahead of the charging midfield pack rather than trying to close down Red Bull.
With the Milton Keynes outfit ditching the French manufacturer for Honda engines in 2019, and still some animosity remaining too, it was always likely comparisons would be between the two teams made this year.
However, though Renault actually set the fastest time of the first test last week via Hulkenberg, the German rejected any thought that they have closed the gap.
“We know where Red Bull is faster, but we would like to know why,” he confirmed.
As for how close he thinks Renault is to the front three teams, the 31-year-old continued: “I honestly am not bothered with that. First of all, we have to go through our programme and optimise our car.
“It is very closely balanced [behind us]. We are by no means comfortably fourth.”
Even so, Hulkenberg insists he is happy enough with the new R.S.19, mostly because of its familiarity.
“I feel good about the car. We have managed to recover the downforce that we should actually have lost with the new rules,” Nico claimed.
“The car actually feels like last year. Like someone pressed the copy-paste button.”
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Renault hopes their new driver Daniel Ricciardo can help unlock some of the secrets to the top teams’ dominance, but he too echoed Hulkenberg’s sentiment on their 2019 car.
“I guess you still have more or less the same things like mid corner understeer and you can never go fast enough and never release the brake fast enough,” he said.
“I think with the construction of these tyres as well, when you’re really turning in a tight apex, the front does eventually fall away.
“All these things are still quite familiar. Probably just the way the car responds is a bit different, the feeling, but yeah the fundamentals are the same. It doesn’t feel scary.”
