Ricciardo sees Montreal as 'best test yet' for Renault engine

Daniel Ricciardo views this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix as the perfect venue to evaluate Renault's recently upgraded engine.

The French manufacturer was confronted with reliability issues in the first few races of the 2019 season that forced it to turn down the power of its unit until an update was applied.

Renault traced the problem to a conrod weakness and subsequently introduced a spec 2 engine in Barcelona that was capable of running at full capacity.

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Montreal's long straights cater to an engine's qualities which makes the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve an appropriate layout on which to validate Renault's unit.

"This will be a good test for it," Ricciardo said.

"We know we’ve definitely made progress through the year. We were encouraged by Monaco and even Barcelona.

"This will be the best test yet. I am confident that we will be alright but all right, what does that mean? Hopefully a Q3 car.

"But remembering what it was like last year, like pulling up the hill to Turn 3 and these places, our recollection was that in a year it has improved a lot."

Ricciardo is hopeful of Renault ramping up its power although the Aussie is keeping his expectations in check.

"They have not said it will do this or that, but through the upgrade we had for reliability purposes, that seems to be good," he added.

"Basically it was once we get that then we can start to wind it up. I don’t know if we are going to push it more this weekend than in Monaco.

"But already having the reliability in a better place on their side, we have already been able to squeeze a bit more out of it. I don’t want to say we will be doing big things yet. I’ll play it cool."

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