Vasseur tries to dampen expectations at Renault

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Renault racing director Frederic Vasseur has warned his team not to get carried away with its first points of the season in Russia.

Kevin Magnussen won the driver of the weekend award for his impressive performance in finishing seventh in Sochi, jumping the Haas of Romain Grosjean in the pits. While pleased to finally get points on the board, Vasseur warns it is unlikely to signal the start of a more competitive run for Renault.

"It’s no secret, we still have plenty of work to do," Vasseur said. "That will be the story all year. Russia was a good weekend for us as we saw the whole team deliver and our first points of the year were a result.

"That was great for everyone and a good reward for all the effort being put in. Equally it doesn’t change the work we have to do: make the car faster, and ensure we make no mistakes in any aspect of our work.

"In Russia the car didn’t suddenly gain a lot of performance, rather the team and Kevin in particular were able to extract the maximum and external circumstances also fell our way. Not every race will fall for us in this way, but we always want to deliver the maximum possible as well as improving the maximum potential itself."

Despite Vasseur's comments, chassis technical director Nick Chester believes the RS16 could fare well in Barcelona.

"We fared decently in relative terms at pre-season testing there and when you look at the qualities required for a handy car around the circuit there are no initial fears from our side," Chester said. "That’s not to say we wouldn’t welcome some more downforce, but there’s potential as we currently stand."

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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.