Renault says they are "disappointed" to not be closer to the top teams after a positive winter development and pre-season testing. The French outfit is a part of the tight midfield battle to be best of the rest but technical director Bob Bell says it isn't where they had hoped to be.
The team had said they expect to be back fighting for wins by 2020 and are halfway through the project that would put them in that position, however, this year there seems to be an even bigger gap between the top teams and the rest of the field.
"I would say we are disappointed we are not further up," said Bell. "We had hoped to take a bit more lap time out of the top three teams over the winter and we haven't. If anything they might have moved further ahead, so we are a little bit disappointed about that.
"I think we are reasonably pleased with how we have positioned ourselves to McLaren, which we were very worried about when they came on board with the engine but clearly Toro Rosso and Haas have done a great job over the winter and are making life very difficult for us.
"It's going to be nip and tuck with them all season and McLaren are going to develop -- McLaren are very good at developing to recover any losses from the start.
"It's going to be really close fought. We had hoped to be a little bit further ahead at the start but this isn't an exact science and we know we can do a good development job in season."
Renault currently find themselves fifth in the constructor standings in 2018, behind McLaren in fourth.
Read more about:
Today
Popular on GPBlog
1
F1 LIVE | Follow FP2 for the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
835 times read
2
Mercedes 'not the right place' for Verstappen, concludes former strategist James Vowles
715 times read
3
'Max Verstappen considers taking break from F1 after 2025 season'
575 times read
4
Verstappen contradicts Horner: 'This departed key figure does make a difference'
507 times read