Renault ambassador and four-time world champion Alain Prost believes the French manufacturer is hard pressed to decide when to focus on the development of its 2017 contender given the team's poor results to date this year.
With exception of Russia, where Kevin Magnussen salvaged a seventh-place finish, Renault has failed to score points this season for its return as a works effort to Grand Prix racing.
The team's performance has been disappointing so far and, according to Alain Prost, its situation may be complicated by the decision its faces as to when it should move resources away from its under-performing race team and allocate more effort to the design and development of its 2017 car.
"It is maybe more difficult than they thought, because of the late decision [to buy the team]," explained Prost.
"I was expecting maybe a little bit more performance but not much more. I think the problem is not what you can see today, the problem is more how you try to understand why it is not working so well until the end of the year.
"It’s how you manage to get the people happy and motivated until the end of the year, and to get the best car possible for 2017.
"I don’t know what they do for the next three, four or five races, but at some stage you need to make a decision – do we continue to try to develop the 2016 car or do we go straight to 2017?
"That is a difficult decision to make and when you are so low it is not that easy. It is easier if you are in the middle of the field or at the front."
Prost believes that ultimately, regardless of the timing of Renault's decision, the more important factor is getting all the right people in place for the longer term.
"Things are moving. They are waiting for new people coming. When I was at my team a long time ago, we started with 65 people and went up to 200 people.
"And even from 65 to 200 is quite difficult to make things work and get people coming at the same time. You end up having the old generation and the new generation.
"There is what people did in the past, so when you have people coming, it has to take a little bit of time. The bad luck [for Renault] is that the car is not working well – and it is more difficult when the car is not working well."
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
