Daniel Ricciardo admits McLaren is currently showing the performance which Renault is aiming for.
The two teams have established themselves at the front of the midfield in recent races with McLaren claiming ‘best of the rest’ in three of the past four Grands Prix and Renault enjoying their strongest result in Canada.
In France and Austria, however, there are signs of the Woking-based outfit pulling ahead of their Enstone rivals and that has led the Australian to concede their current superiority.
“I mean, looking at the McLarens, they’re certainly the benchmark now and they’ve really come on. They’re the ones with that kind of package that we’re looking for,” Ricciardo explained via GPFans.com.
“Looking at it, they’re able to run more downforce and more efficiently, so they can run higher downforce, yet lose less in the straights.
“It seems like our package itself, when we do run more downforce we don’t seem to be able to use it well, so that’s something,” he revealed.
“Whether that goes back to correlation in the wind tunnel, all these things, I guess all that’s going to be addressed.
“But, absolutely, something isn’t adding up, and I know the team has invested a lot, and I guess the value for money is not coming yet.”
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McLaren’s improvement after several years in the wilderness was also highlighted by F1 motorsport director Ross Brawn post-Austria.
“After years of suffering the team is back on track and has put together a string of results that makes it favourite for the fourth place, which is the most that the ‘normal’ teams can aspire to this year,” he said.
“The fact that on Sunday Honda won as an engine manufacturer for the first time in almost 13 years might have given them pause for thought,” Brawn suggested.
“But they can only be pleased about being 20 points ahead of Renault, their own engine supplier’s official team.”
