Renault To Focus On Stability This Year

Renault team boss Cyrit Abiteboul has said that his team will first and foremost be focussing on consistency and stability, before it can consider making a title-push.

"We have a very long 21-race calendar ahead of us," Abiteboul explained, "which absolutely puts a premium on consistency and stability."

"Adding to our confidence we have two highly motivated drivers who know the team very well," he referenced to Nico Hülkenberg, who enteres his second full season at Renault, and Carlos Sainz, who'll be driving his first full season for the French team after joining in the late stages of last season.

Abiteboul continued his praise of his drivers, and the way that they performed in pre-season.

"They didn’t make any mistakes," he said. "[They] gave very detailed feedback that gave us extremely clear indications on the direction to take both for Melbourne and in the longer term."

Looking ahead, the team boss has no clear idea where his team ranks among the rest of the grid, but he does know that the midfield will be a close battle.

"Of course there are some unknowns," he acknowledged. "Our relative level of performance compared to the rest of the field will only be clear in Australia."