In 2018, the Renault team managed to finish in fourth place overall, being led by Mercedes, Ferrari and of course, the Red Bull team.
The team did admit that they didn’t aim high enough with engine development. This is one of the reasons they didn’t manage to become one of the top three teams. While we respected their honestly, it would have been great to see them do better.
Now, in 2019, we see the Renault engine development team supply motors for both their cars and McLaren. However, the difference is the targets they’ve set for themselves, which are indeed higher than last year and higher than most other teams in F1.
Over the winter, the Renault team managed to reach some impressive results with their new engine. Offering another 30kw, which is just one of the many ways they’ve applied improvements to the 2019 car.
The team says they are ready for the season ahead and have set the standard higher than ever. The company has been adding vast amounts of cash for development, making it a recipe for significant achievements in the year ahead.
At the same time, many of you might be thinking that we’ve heard this from Renault before. It just seems like they don’t deliver, but there seems to be a difference for 2019. Not only do they have improvements to show on paper, but the few fast last we’ve seen during testing indeed suggest something has changed.
On top of that, the team is pleased with the reliability of the cars. The way they’ve managed to incorporate the new racing regulations for 2019. Most importantly, Ricciardo seems confident in the improvements and believes the team can finally break their way into the top three positions this year.
Ricciardo Believes they Can Win
Daniel Ricciardo believes the philosophy of Renault is an entirely different approach that will give them the ability to close the gap that’s been keeping the team of a podium for so long now.
With the best of the best finish, last year and not being too far behind the top three was perfect. Especially since the team admitted, they didn’t set their goals high enough. At the same time, Ricciardo’s new teammate, Nico Hulkenberg has suggested that the car didn’t have enough in 2018. With all the significant changes and vast amounts of cash thrown at development, the 2019 season high be a completely different result.
The Australian racer thinks the most significant progress Renault will achieve in 2019 comes directly from the incredible engine enhancements they’ve made for the 2019 car.
It would certainly be interesting to see how they now complete with the Honda engines, which even Red Bull has now shifted to. For all we know, we might see the Renault driven McLaren team take drastic steps forwards!