Adrian Newey believes Renault could drop further away from Mercedes and Ferrari as a result of a lack of budget.
The Red Bull designer has warned there is likely to be a "spending frenzy" as a result of restrictions on power unit development being lifted from 2017 onwards. While he is keen to praise Renault for its approach to providing all of its customers with identical engines and software, Newey believes the amount of money being spent by other manufacturers will prevent Renault from closing the performance gap.
"They have always given the same power units in every sense of the word, including software, to their customer teams as their works teams," Newey told Reuters at the Zoom charity auction.
"Of course it’s an option for Red Bull and it’s an option for Renault (to continue together). The problem of course is that if Renault are not able to compete with the spend and development race then we are put in a position where neither they nor us can be fully competitive."
And rather than the end of the token system allowing Renault and Honda to catch up more quickly, Newey expects there to be plenty of room for development for all power unit manufacturers in the coming years.
"These engines are still relatively infant technology. We have already seen the steps that can be made...there’s no reason to suspect they’ve suddenly reached a plateau."
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