Renault will be using Red Bull as its benchmark for this year's chassis, though admits it is likely to be "quite painful".
The French manufacturer returns as a constructor this season having taken over the Lotus team, but will also remain as a supplier to Red Bull which will use Tag-Heuer branded engines. With the two teams set to use the same power unit and Renault admitting it needs to invest in personnel following recent financial troubles at Enstone, chassis technical director Nick Chester says he will be looking at Red Bull as a target.
"It gives us a chassis benchmark and that might be quite painful, but it is sort of good knowledge," Chester told Motorsport.com. "We know Red Bull make a very good chassis. We will know the lap time difference and it will be a target.
"And, to be honest, we don't expect to be at their level this year. We need to start improving the team and building towards it."
And Chester says it is the improvement which is Renault's target rather than any specific position in the championship in 2016.
"For this year we are realistic. We have got a lot of building up the team to do and we want to be reliable and show we can improve during the year.
"But we are not setting a championship target, nor a championship position. We just want to do a credible job and start to show that we can improve."
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