Abiteboul unsure how conservative Renault will need to be in Australia

Renault Sport F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul says that the French manufacturer's new power unit has exceed its performance targets so far this year.

Renault starts the 2017 season with an all-new engine powering its cars and those of its customers, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso.

Despite a weakness linked with the unit's its Energy Recovery System, which forced Renault-powered teams to keep the wraps on the engine's full potential, Abiteboul is confident it is only a matter of time before the fury is unleashed.

"I think we are on target, and even maybe exceeding that target, subject to reliability," Abiteboul explained to Autosport.

"We came into this with a whole new engine architecture, not just in terms of [combustion engine] but also ERS.

"That means quite a great challenge, particularly in terms of reliability, and there is no surprise. We were expecting to encounter some difficulties - we had those difficulties that materialised.

"But the good news is that we are not doing that for nothing, meaning that the performance is there when we are try to extract it.

"We were not doing that frequently, because we were really managing distance and life of the engine parts, which are still critical conditions.

"But we have seen the performance that we wanted to get is definitely there.

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As Renault heads to Australia, Abiteboul said they now need to decide the mode - conservative or not - in which its engines will run in Melbourne.

"We believe we have a situation that is roughly under control," said the Frenchman.

"But these power units are so complex to control that we still have a number of decisions to make before Melbourne that will have an impact on not only the finishing order but whether we get to the finish line in Melbourne or not.

"We are really on a critical path and it is really important to stay focused and not take anything for granted."

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