Abiteboul: I'm sure we can attract someone like Ricciardo

The French manufacturer's motorsport boss Cyril Abiteboul is aiming to make his team an attractive prospect to top drivers, and said ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, "We are interested in talented drivers, and Ricciardo is a talented driver."

"I think Daniel Ricciardo is very well positioned to have a very clear understanding about where we are strong, where we can be weak. And I am talking about the engine because obviously, he is using a Renault engine, which can be good and sometimes can be wrong.

"If we want to seduce drivers like Ricciardo – maybe Ricciardo, but maybe other drivers – the first thing that we need to do is to get our stuff right. And if we manage to build the best chassis/engine package, I am pretty sure that we can attract someone like Ricciardo, because we can show that we are serious about our ambitions."

"But the first thing that we need to do for Daniel is to fix… not fix, because it's not broken, but to make sure that we are in complete control of the engine situation."

"Maybe we cannot control everything, but at least we need to have visibility on the future and that is why I am also acting to speed things up with Red Bull on the engine side, and that will be the same also on the drivers' side.

"We need to be fixed about our plans as soon as possible, bearing in mind that we can't control everything," added Abiteboul who already has allowed Red Bull to extend their decision by two weeks for the end of this month.

Meanwhile the Renault team chief is also happy with his current drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz - the latter on loan from Red Bull, but also a possible long-term candidate for the team.

Abiteboul explained, "We have in my opinion still two great drivers, but obviously we have a particular situation with Carlos, which is a contract where we are exposed for next year, and we knew that since day one."

"That's why we need to start thinking way in advance about what could be the situation. And frankly, that is why we have already started discussion with Carlos about longer term, about what can happen beyond this year, accepting that it's not completely in his hands nor our hands.

"[It is] not a super comfortable situation to be in, but we need to accept that we are still playing catch up on many areas and one of the areas is also driver market, where we still need to try to be more in control of our future and of our destiny," added Abiteboul.