Renault to deliver "one or two upgrades" before season's end

Renault

Renault to deliver "one or two upgrades" before season's end

Team is in a fight for third in the constructors' championship

Ian Parkes

Tuesday 6 October 2020 11:24

Renault has promised to deliver at least one more upgrade on its car this season in its fight for third in the Formula 1 constructors' championship.

The French manufacturer currently finds itself in a three-way battle with McLaren and Racing Point for best of the rest behind Mercedes and Red Bull.

Heading into this weekend's Eifel Grand Prix as F1 returns to the Nürburgring after a seven-year absence, Renault trails McLaren by seven points and is five behind Racing Point.

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With the RS20 delivering of late, particularly in the hands of Daniel Ricciardo who has twice finished fourth, along with a fifth and sixth place in the last four races, Renault is set to add further updates in the coming weeks.

After a new floor and front wing was introduced for the last race in Russia that brought "a decent step in performance", according to chief race engineer Ciaron Pilbeam, he added: "Sochi was another good weekend for us. The car performed well.

"We scored a good haul of points and we are now in a good position in the constructors’ championship.

"We are well into the second half of the season now and we still have one or two upgrades to come to the car, which we will need to keep up that challenge, as our competitors are not sleeping."

While data is available from F1's last visit to the German circuit in 2013, Pilbeam concedes it is almost irrelevant given the changes to the cars over the years, with the team going into the weekend primarily relying on simulation work.

Assessing the track, Pilbeam said: "The first sector of the circuit is quite a technical section, with a sequence of closely spaced slow and medium-speed corners where the precise racing line is important.

"The middle sector is more flowing, with some faster corners and the tricky chicane, and then the last corner on to the start-finish straight. It’s a high downforce track with a variety of features that will require some set-up compromises."

One of the main areas of concern for all teams will be the cold and wet weather that is forecast.

"We need to be prepared to focus on getting the tyres working if it is dry, and to consider how and when we use our limited number of wet and intermediate tyres if the forecast is for rain over the weekend," said Pilbeam.

"We’ve shown recently our car is performing well at most circuits, and it has been competitive in the wet. We will be prepared for all conditions."

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