Renault: Red Bull making wrong communication

Although Red Bull have stated that they don’t expect any engine updates until Canada, Renault says they’ve gone their communications “wrong” as there are always upgrades coming.

Faltering in their charge to take on Mercedes and Ferrari in the championship, Red Bull are pinning their hopes of Renault’s next update which they have reported will only come at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Renault, though, insists this isn’t true as their engine is improving “every” race week.

Managing director Cyril Abiteboul explained to Autosport: “Frankly, what I want to play down is this sort of focus on the upgrade because the engine is improving every weekend.

“We said reliability was the main issue to the performance delivery and improvement and that is exactly the case.

“I give you a clear example: we had better reliability.

“We just completed a programme on the dyno [in the Spanish GP week] and on Saturday afternoon there was immediately mapware for all three teams.

“It’s not black and white, we haven’t suddenly jumped Mercedes in terms of power delivery, but that is small improvement.

“There will be more to come in Monaco and there will be more to come when we introduce power unit number three again.

“Red Bull, as always, is making wrong communication about performance development.

“But what I can guarantee you is, race-by-race, the engine will improve and overall in the season, if you look at the engine software, hardware and also the fuel and lubricants coming from our petroleum partner, I’m sure there is a very decent step to come.”

However, it won’t be until next season that Renault are on a par with Mercedes and Ferrari.

Abiteboul added: “The gap to be fully closed, it’s not going to happen this year.

“We think it’s something for next year, but having said that, we think the step we are planning to make, which we have on the shelf for this year, is going to almost close it completely in the course of the season.

“We already have a very clear idea of next year’s engine and the aim we have is to completely close the gap in the course of next season.”

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