F1 News
Renault: "Our goal isn't to beat Mercedes and Red Bull"
- GPblog.com
Renault seems to feel more and more at home on the tracks that require a lot of top speed and little downforce. With fourth and fifth places for Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, the team can therefore look forward to the race in Monza, where low downforce will become even more important. The Australian even managed to set the fastest lap in the final part of the race.
Originally the team had a different plan to achieve the fastest lap. "We briefly consulted within the team to use the softest tyre to have some fun on the track. That plan didn't go through, however, as we chose to drive on a higher engine setting," explains Renault's top executive, Alan Permane, to Auto, Motor und Sport.
Target is third place, not Red Bull or Mercedes
"However, Daniel's racing engineer told us that the fastest lap was only half a second faster. From that moment on he started to accelerate." Ricciardo himself was particularly disappointed that his gap to the top was so great. "Due to traffic I had to overtake a lot more and once I was in fourth place the gap was huge. If we were close, I think we had the speed of the top three."
But the Australian driver doesn't think he could attack the top three. "Of course, the question is whether we could attack them then." According to Permane, that is the goal for Monza.
"Of course we want to fight the top teams. But we shouldn't try to do something very extreme, because our goal is not to beat Mercedes and Red Bull Racing, but to be third in the championship," said Renault's top man.