Further upgrades for Renault’s RS17

Renault will join the majority of their rivals in introducing new parts to their car at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, including an updated rear wing.

Spain is traditionally the venue where the teams bring their first round of big updates as the sport’s development war kicks into high gear.

While Renault introduce new parts at the Russian GP, most notably a revised front wing, for Spain they’ll be running an updated rear wing as well as new barge boards on the RS17.

“The upgrades we used in Sochi worked as expected so we made a useful step in our race pace whilst maintaining qualifying pace,” said Nick Chester, the team’s tech chief.

“There’s still more to do in this area, but we’re heading in the right direction.

“We’re in the midfield fight where we expected to be, but it’s a very close battle here so we need to ensure we seize every advantage possible from the car and how we use it.”

He added: “We have new barge boards and an updated rear wing.

“We need to keep adding performance to the car as that’s what everyone else is fighting to do.

“We’ve started the season on a positive note so we need to maintain and improve this.

As for whether Renault can add to their six points come Sunday’s Spanish GP, Chester says he is feeling “reasonably” positive.

“The outlook is pretty good,” he said.

“We’ve been qualifying well so far this season, then Sochi showed a useful improvement to our race pace.

“We’ve still got a few more upgrades on the aerodynamic package for Spain, so we’re reasonably positive.”