Prost: Renault can't do better than Monza

Alain Prost says Renault's fourth and fifth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix was the maximum that the team could expect to achieve.

Daniel Ricciardo led Nico Hulkenberg home to secure Renault's best points haul from a single race since 2008, converting top-six starting positions.

As a result, Renault are back within 18 points of McLaren in the race for fourth place in the constructors' championship, although this remains short of the target the French team had set at the start of 2019 to close the gap to the big three teams.

Although Renault's season has not hit the heights expected, special advisor Prost says the Monza haul will ease the pressure that had built up at Enstone.

"We had a few races where we missed big points, big opportunities," Prost told Autosport.

"There was Monaco, and Spa also, because the pace was good but we lost everything at the start. When you have these kinds of races and problems you get some more pressure.

View this post on Instagram

P4! Pizza time!! 🍕 . With @danielricciardo in 4th and @hulkhulkenberg just behind, @renaultf1team get their first double top 5 finish since 2008 . #F1 #Formula1 #ItalianGP #Ricciardo #Hulkenberg #Renault

A post shared by FORMULA 1® (@f1) on Sep 8, 2019 at 11:24am PDT

"Obviously it's not easy, so we had to get some good points, and fourth and fifth is fantastic. We can't do better, anyway.

"It's very good team. There's a lot of work, a lot of pressure, and they deserved this result.

"The pressure is also because we have to be honest, the power was not at the level that we thought we could be this year. We knew that we could not catch the top three anyway.

"You have an objective and if you're not close to the objective, you put on yourself more pressure, which is not very good, because at the end of the day we are still trying to build the team."

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Red Bull fury over 'childish' McLaren as 'animosity' festers between F1 rivals

• 17 minutes ago

Jealous of Mercedes? Lewis Hamilton fears Ferrari F1 development path

• 1 hour ago

Red Bull target sensational Oscar Piastri move with Max Verstappen future uncertain

• 1 hour ago

F1 return for BANNED grand prix opens up after 70 years

• 2 hours ago

Fernando Alonso collects $10m supercar and it's the only one in the world

• 3 hours ago

F1 owners feel impact of controversial new rules after $617m financial result

• Today 16:19