Renault puts partner Red Bull in its place

Renault Sport F1 boss Cyril Abiteboul is taking issue with Red Bull over its public claims that it is expecting a major engine upgrade for the Canadian Grand Prix.

While Renault is indeed working on updates, Abiteboul insists that ongoing development is helping its power unit improve at every race.

The Frenchman downplayed the assertions, and clearly isn't happy with its partner's discourse and the unnecessary expectation it has created.

"Red Bull, as always, is making wrong communication about performance development," Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.

"Frankly, what I want to play down is this sort of focus on the upgrade because the engine is improving every weekend."

"We said reliability was the main issue to the performance delivery and improvement and that is exactly the case.

"I give you a clear example: we had better reliability. [Before Spain] we completed a programme on the dyno and on Saturday afternoon there was immediately map-ware for all three teams.

“It’s not black and white, we haven’t suddenly jumped Mercedes in terms of power delivery, but that is small improvement.

"There will be more to come in Monaco and there will be more to come when we introduce power unit number three again.

"What I can guarantee you is, race-by-race, the engine will improve," he adds.

"And overall in the season, we have, if you look at the engine software, hardware and also the fuel and lubricants coming from our petroleum partner, I'm sure there is a very decent step to come."

Among the engine updates in sight is an improved and lighter MGU-K, Renault having to revert to the older component which is 5kg heavier.

"An option could be to introduce that with power unit number three," he said.

"Weight was maybe a concern at the start of the season, but as always, most teams have dealt with that. The only thing that MGU-K is bringing is a bit less weight, but it's not something too pressing."

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Red Bull's Christian Horner said in Spain that his team was inching closer to Mercedes and Ferrari, as it awaited its major power unit upgrade to completely bridge the gap.

But Abiteboul insists that isn't happening this year, at least as far as the power unit is concerned.

"The gap to be fully closed, it's not going to happen this year," he admits.

"We think it's something for next year, but having said that, we think the step we are planning to make, which we have on the shelf for this year, is going to almost close it completely in the course of the season.

"We already have a very clear idea of next year's engine and the aim we have is to completely close the gap in the course of next season."

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