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.”
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