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Renault confident it knows how to fix race pace problem
Renault chief technical officer Bob Bell says that the Enstone team knows what it has to do to improve the race day form of the RS17 – and it’s now a question of updated parts coming through the system.
Adam Cooper
Edited: Apr 22, 2017, 11:08 AM
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Nico Hulkenberg has qualified seventh in the last two races, but on both occasions the German has struggled for pace in race conditions and ultimately lost places, finishing 12th in China and ninth in Bahrain.
The German's teammate Jolyon Palmer meanwhile has yet to score points this year, finishing the last two races in 13th place.
“We need to find more pace on Sundays, we just lack race pace,” Bell told Motorsport.com. “We knew that going into the race.
"We’ve got a reasonable view on where we’re losing and why it’s happening, so we’ve just got to deliver on the bits that will restore that. It’s a combination of tyres and aero, and getting them to work under all circumstances.
“We know what we need to do. What we haven’t been able to do is demonstrate it on track, deliver the bits to the track, and deliver on that upgrade. That’s the next step.”
Bell is encouraged by the one-lap pace seen thus far: “The basic pace of the car is there. You couldn’t put it where we put it in qualifying if it wasn’t.
"What we don’t have is a flat operating envelope where we can get that same level of pace short run and long run, and that’s what our objective is.”
Bell is also confident that all the changes made at Renault's respective chassis and engine bases at Enstone and Viry have worked as planned, and the team is going in the right direction.
“We’re in much better shape than we were a year ago," he continued. "We’re not where we want to be, we’re not where we planned to be, but we are getting there, one step at a time.
“There’s an ongoing engine development programme which will bring bits to the track, with different engine tranches when we feel comfortable. At the moment the engine performance isn’t the issue, it’s the chassis performance that’s holding us back.”
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