Breaking news
Formula 1
Renault denies it inherited fourth place in 2018
Renault F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul says that his team's fourth place in the world championship is all the more satisfying because there are no question marks about it.
Adam Cooper
Published: Dec 21, 2018, 10:40 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Renault was keen to beat rivals Haas by a big enough margin so that Romain Grosjean's disqualification from sixth place in Monza – which created a 10-point swing towards the Enstone team – had no impact on the outcome.
In the end the gap between them was 29 points.
Significantly, Renault also outscored the combined total of Sahara Force India and Racing Point Force India by 122 to 111.
"It's official, clear, there's no debate," Abiteboul told Motorsport.com. "There's no question of how do you add up the points of Force India or Haas? It's a clear P4.
"But it was not a straightforward season, from that. On many occasions we didn't have the fourth best car, that was sure. So I'd like really to give credit to the race team, including the drivers, who did a remarkable job.
"I do believe that Haas had a faster car, but it's not just how your source your car, it's the way you operate it, and again that's why I want to say those words about our race team and drivers.
"On many occasions we had our backs to the wall, having to deal with some issues in the garage, on strategy, dealing also with the tyre situation in qualifying.
"And on many occasions it has been difficult, but we've shown some resilience, and overall we've been able to get that position, which was our ambition for this year.
"Obviously it's not our long term ambition, but it has to be an intermediate milestone. "
Abiteboul conceded that the next step – challenging the top three teams – will be a difficult one.
"Now we need to target higher. We are well aware that there's a world between where we are and where we want to be. This just gives us even more energy to work even harder over the winter."
He also acknowledged the significance of the loss of Red Bull Racing as a benchmark in 2019, but insisted that lessons have already been learned.
"It's true, that's why I wanted to have this type of customer team with us for the last three years, the first three years of our construction. It allowed me to avoid having any sort of finger pointing between chassis and engine.
"Thanks to Red Bull we knew clearly what the engine was capable of, for the good and for the bad, but now I think we've got enough maturity to know that we all need to progress."
Cyril Abiteboul, Renault Sport F1 Managing Director on the pit wall gantry
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Raikkonen's Ferrari exit a "blow" to F1 - Wolff
Next article Communication Honda's "biggest change" after McLaren split
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
More from
Renault Sport
Alpine owner Renault staying in F1 for a long time, says new CEO
Formula 1
Formula 1
Italian GP
Alpine owner Renault staying in F1 for a long time, says new CEO
Ricciardo says Renault F1 car "happier" in low-downforce trim
Formula 1
Formula 1
Belgian GP
Ricciardo says Renault F1 car "happier" in low-downforce trim
Renault lodges third protest against Racing Point
Formula 1
Formula 1
British GP
Renault lodges third protest against Racing Point
Latest news
Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
4 min
Brennan Poole joins Jordan Anderson Racing for 2027 NASCAR O'Reilly season
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Phoenix
4 h
Kaden Honeycutt wins incident-free Phoenix NASCAR Truck race, extends points lead
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
9 h
GTA VI 'Vice City' blimp to appear at NASCAR championship weekend
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 9 h
Verstappen Racing struggles to 15th as Porsche takes emotional Portimao pole
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe