F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Renault weighing aggression over reliability at Abu Dhabi

Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul says the team is having to think hard about aggressive it can afford to be in the season finale at Abu Dhabi.

After some embarrassing power unit failures in recent races, the team opted to turn down its engines at Interlagos. Both the works cars duly made it to the finish, but in subdued positions. Nico Hulkenberg finished tenth, with his new team mate Carlos Sainz one place further back.

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fifth and sixth in the Renault-powered Red Bull cars. Pierre Gasly was 12th in the sister Toro Rosso, but team mate Brendon Hartley retired on lap 40.

"It's a shame that I had to retire," Hartley reported after the race. "I think that we could've finished the race just behind Pierre if we hadn't suffered a high oil consumption.

"We knew that there was a problem early on in the race, as I had to start transferring oil. I didn't want to ask, but I had the feeling that we were not going to get to the end. And we didn't."

For Renault, that outcome was the worst of both worlds.

"We were in a position where we had to sacrifice a bit of performance in order to increase the reliability," Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.

"It's not a nice situation to be in," he added, pointing out that it meant Renault had been able do little to improve its position after the first lap.

"It's a bit bitter because we know there is much more potential," he said.

Now the question is what Renault will decide to do in the final race of the season. Does it go all out for success at the risk of its engines blowing up, or end up lacking power to compete on track?

It's no mere academic question. Renault is currently in seventh place in the drivers championship, just four points away from catching Toro Rosso. But at the same time, Renault is only two points ahead of the Haas F1 Team.

Losing a place in the championship in the final run could cost the team millions in prize money.

"We know Haas are very close in the championship," Abiteboul acknowledged. "We need to take a balanced approach, that will be the focus."

However that didn't mean safety-first was the way to go. "We would like and could afford to be aggressive," he said. "If you're not aggressive at the last race, when are you going to be?

He added that Renault needed to make sure it didn't have to make the performance/reliability trade off in future. "If we want to race in F1, we need both," he stressed.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

McLaren to review Sunday's fateful pit stop timing

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted that the squad has no regrets about its…

15 mins ago

Williams' Boutsen hoists the mainsail in Adelaide

On this day in 1989, Williams' Thierry Boutsen secured his second F1 win when he…

1 hour ago

Horner: Max 'answered critics' with epic Sao Paulo GP drive

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…

2 hours ago

Sainz left puzzled by double crash drama in rainy São Paulo

Carlos Sainz was left scratching his head after a disastrous Sunday at the Sao Paulo…

3 hours ago

Alonso pushed through agonizing pain to complete Sao Paulo GP

Fernando Alonso braved both physical agony and mechanical challenges in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix,…

5 hours ago

Alpine double-podium in Brazil could deliver $30 million windfall

Alpine’s remarkable double podium at the São Paulo Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon and Pierre…

19 hours ago