Frédéric Vasseur is confident Renault’s challenging race weekend in Baku was “just a one-off” and expects the French constructor to fare better on more traditional circuits.
Team-mates Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer qualified on the last row of the grid in Azerbaijan, before recovering to 14th and 15th in the race, albeit a lap down on winner Nico Rosberg.
“Baku was a bit of a one-off; a street track that was very quick and everyone experienced problems,” Vasseur said. “When we go back to something more traditional, we need to find our rhythm from the start of the weekend from qualifying through to the race.”
“If you look back to Barcelona, this is more representative of where we are. We need to manage the weekend well from the start to the finish, making the right strategic decisions to have an approach that is more global and consistent between Saturday and Sunday.”
Renault introduced a major engine upgrade in Monaco last month but, unlike customer team Red Bull, has not had the results to show for it since. Chief technical officer Bob Bell claims the recent trio of street races have masked the team’s progress, with Vasseur also hopeful of a performance boost in the upcoming races.
“We suffered in the slow corners in Canada and Baku. Austria should be better for a variety of reasons. I think we are making progress as a team and I hope we can move forward race after race on the more traditional circuits towards the level of performance we saw pre-Monaco.”
Scene at the Grand Prix of Europe
Grand Prix of Europe - Driver ratings
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Another qualifying session, another pole position for Max Verstappen. In Miami, the Red Bull charger…
George Russell believes that Mercedes’ struggles this season are rooted in the team “overcompensating” for…
Charles Leclerc insisted that he was driving right on the limit in Saturday's qualifying session…
It might look to others that it's been plain sailing for Max Verstappen this weekend…
Lewis Hamilton noted his progress in Saturday’s afternoon’s Miami Grand Prix qualifying, having reached contrary…
Max Verstappen will start from pole position for the second time this weekend, after calmly…