Renault wants to cut deficit to top teams by half

Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg has claimed that the team want to cut the deficit to the top teams, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull by half during the 2018 campaign, and expects stiff competition from the resurgent McLaren team and Force India for fourth place behind the big trio.

The team did not maximise the potential of their vehicle last season, but boss Cyril Abiteboul says this is because of reliability concerns, whilst also insisting that Renault have not made a mistake in providing engines to rival teams like McLaren and Red Bull.

"Last year, we could not exhaust the engine's potential because of fears about reliability," Abiteboul told Auto Motor und Sport. "But now we can."

"We cannot run away from these teams if we want to be world champions. We can also learn from our customers: Red Bull in aerodynamics and organisation, and McLaren on the mechanical side."

Nico Hulkenberg echoed the statement of his boss and thinks that Renault should not be in awe of the star-studded driver line-ups of Red Bull and McLaren.

"We are not bad ourselves," Hulkenberg said. "I don't think we have to hide from them."

"The top three teams will continue to be at the front. Then I hope it is us and McLaren and it will be interesting to see what Force India can do again. If we manage to cut the gap to the top teams in half then we will have done a good job."