Renault knows why Red Bull is faster: "Not like we are missing something major"

"There’s a perception in the outside world that a driver can come in and bring immediate competitiveness. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that, and it comes down to these marginal differences between the cars," Abiteboul said in an interview with GP Racing. According to the Frenchman, it is precisely those little things that make the difference with the top teams still a few tenths.

Renault loses to 'small things' from Red Bull

"It’s not like we are missing something major against Red Bull, it’s the sum of many small differences which unfortunately Daniel can have no impact on. He’s not bringing car competitiveness, but he brings many other things – such as motivation," the team boss explains.

In the last two years Ricciardo has had a big impact on Renault. “He’s a people person. We have a group of people who working extremely well – just look at the progression of his young race engineer, Karel Loos. It’s been a remarkable ramp up and he’s been able to scale up his game. That’s very much down to the way he’s been working with Daniel and the same is true for all his side of the garage.”

Statement

For a long time there were serious doubts about Renault's commitment and future in Formula 1. Taking over Ricciardo from Red Bull was a statement. "It’s also important (since hiring Daniel) that there is now nowhere to hide. I know some people in the F1 community had doubts about Renault’s commitment and it was important to make a statement internally and externally, to the partners, to the media, to the fans, making a statement of intent," Abiteboul concluded.