Spain an opportunity for Renault to "reset" season – Abiteboul

Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul says the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix offers his Formula 1 team a chance to “reset” following a disappointing start to 2019.

The French manufacturer has so far been unable to live up to its lofty pre-season expectations and languishes in a lowly seventh in the constructors’ championship after a poor opening four rounds.

Abiteboul acknowledged it is imperative Renault starts turning in some clean weekends after reliability issues have added to its performance problems.

"The start of the European segment of the 2019 Formula 1 season is an opportunity for us to reset,” he said.

“Overall, it’s been a tough start to the year and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix capped off a run of results that fell short of our expectations.

“We know we are capable of much more and we need to target clean weekends and races to make the most of our potential. To do so, we have work to do on all sides of our operation; chassis and engine on and off track, and work with the drivers to allow them to reach their respective capacities.

“We are motivated as ever to strive for more and we aim for a full recovery in competitiveness in Spain.

“We know that the midfield is tight, but this also creates opportunities. We’ve seen that fortunes can change in an instant so we go to Barcelona hungry to get our season campaign going.”

Technical director Nick Chester revealed Renault will be boosted by a host of “reasonable upgrades” to its 2019 challenger in a continued push for added performance.

“As the first European round, Barcelona does offer a good opportunity to bring a number of updates to the car,” Chester explained.

“Most other teams will do the same, but we have a number of reasonable upgrades that are positive. We have a few aero parts to add to the front wing and rear of the car.

“We are also looking at some mechanical tweaks to improve car balance. At this stage there is a development race going on between the teams, but we will keep pushing hard to get best from it each weekend.”