After bagging McLaren as a customer for 2018, Renault is getting ready to handle the expectations of high-profile customer F1 teams from this season.
Renault had a stormy relationship with Red Bull in 2017 due to a large number of reliability issues and had a public fallout with Toro Rosso last season.
McLaren decided to switch to Renault Power after their partnership with Honda didn’t improve even in its third year
Renault’s F1 advisor Alain Prost believes the British outfit will put “positive pressure” on the engine maker to step up its game. Renault Team Boss Cyril Abiteboul thinks managing two former world champion teams would be a “challenging” prospect.
“Actually, I think there are more positives than there is some negative in those relationships, even though I accept it’s going to be high maintenance and going to be an interesting season to manage,” Abiteboul said.
“I think it’s interesting because it’s challenging – but at the same time it’s providing motivation to everyone.” -Cyril Abiteboul
“There is clearly pride to be supplying engines to other great teams and their fantastic drivers.
“Also, I believe McLaren has a wealth of experience and can show us the way to push our engine, but also new ways of making sure we have a winning package.
“Frankly I’m looking forward to it. It’s good to be in a competitive environment, but it’s also good to be challenged.”
