Renault confident engine upgrades can catch Mercedes & Ferrari

Renault is confident that planned engine upgrades will improve its power unit beyond the deficit it currently suffers to Ferrari and Mercedes. Renault engines remain down on power in 2018, as evidenced by Red Bull and McLaren respectively struggling in qualifying.

The French manufacturer has been keen to prioritise reliability over outright performance in the early months of the season, but reportedly allowed the works team, as well as Red Bull and McLaren to access more power in the Chinese Grand Prix, which Daniel Ricciardo won.

Renault chief Cyril Abiteboul confirmed that more upgrades are planned for the Spanish Grand Prix, with even more performance likely to be extracted when the supplier adds hardware improvements for its second power unit of the year.

"We are talking about a substantial amount of in-season development," he said.

"It is more than the gap we have now, in my opinion, from the top teams, certainly in the race at least.

"But obviously top teams, top engine suppliers, they are not going to stop there.

"There are a couple of improvements in the way we are operating the engine and that's more in qualifying.

"There will be a bit more coming, but obviously the next proper improvement will be with hardware upgrade.

"That's not going to be before we introduce power unit number two, which I hope will be as late as possible."

McLaren are yet to reach Q3 in any race this season, although Fernando Alonso has secured points in all three, while Red Bull are yet to qualify on the front row of the grid as Renault's single-lap performance remains disappointing.

"We are exploring every possible avenue to mitigate that deficit," Abiteboul said. "The first thing is to find what can make the difference there.

"I think the gap in qualifying [in China] was a bit less than it's been before. Again, it's still not enough and there is more to come."