Renault chiefs look ahead

With the first half of the season completed succesfully, RenaultF1 have nothing to worry about. Rival teams are however quickly improving and are eager to overtake the French team. The Renault F1 executive staff have a look at how things are about to go this season and beyond.

Renault announced renewed long-term commitment to Formula 1 last April. What has been the impact of the announcement? The impact of the announcement is wide-ranging. Firstly, it reassures the team. Within Renault, there is strong support for the F1 programme but, for the shareholders, there were some questions. We now know what the future looks like, and I can see new energy. In the coming months, the programmes aimed at exploiting our F1 success will grow. We have just established a Motorsport Management Committee aimed at making better capital from our F1 success on a commercial and product level. In terms of our sponsors, we will also try and leverage further involvement from suppliers to the Renault Group.

Yes, I believe so. We have the performance, the reliability and the people. They are doing the job, and doing it well. If we carry on, if we take nothing for granted and continue to push ourselves, then we can do it. It will be a tough fight, but that is the challenge and the thrill of F1 – to work with the team, with its people, to achieve your goals together. That is what really motivates me – and I know we have the ability to take the championships this year.

I think it is even more determined. The pressure to deliver doesn’t just come from the outside: it comes from every member of the team. There is a self-imposed desire to take things to the next level, to move on and to do an even better job than last year. It is a paradoxical situation we find ourselves in. Last year, we had nothing to lose but could afford to take a slightly conservative approach to our racing. This year, we have everything to lose but we need to really push like hell to stay ahead.

We are absolutely committed to the performance development of the RS26 engine to the end of the season. The engine is a critical performance parameter in the car’s performance, and we will aim to develop it as well as we did last year, and hopefully better. It is clear that we need to pursue our development aggressively in order to maintain our advantage over the competition and although we may not have the biggest ‘war chest’ in terms of resources, we are well-equipped for what we need to do, we believe we have established competitive targets to do it, and will be disappointed if our season is not rewarded with more world championship titles.

In the last few races, we have seen that McLaren are coming back in to the mix and they will play a major role. At the start of the year, I was expecting a four-way fight between Renault, Ferrari, McLaren and Honda. Ferrari have lived up to expectations, and Honda seem to be further behind than we thought. But after struggling in the opening races, McLaren are right back at the front. We are no longer fighting just one team but two. It will be a thrilling finish to the year – and one where we intend to come out on top!

I think the greatest strength is the absence of weaknesses. Not in terms of our drivers, nor the engine, chassis, tyres or strategy. I think we have the best of what’s available up and down the pit-lane in every area. From this point on, we have to ensure this system stays strong and continues to perform exceptionally: any lowering of standards could cost us very dearly.