Abiteboul: Let's see what happens with Red Bull and Honda

Like many F1 fans, Abiteboul will be watching the progress of Red Bull's new era with Honda, their former partners with a yet to be proven engine package that has the energy drinks camp bullish in anticipation of next season. They are clearly privy to inside information because, from the outside, because evidence of Honda taking on Mercedes and Ferrari anytime soon has yet to be seen.

When asked by Auto Motor und Sport what his expectations are for next season, Abiteboul said, "It's hard for me today to set goals for next year but if the curve is up, like ours, then you want this trend to continue. We may not succeed in terms of world championship position, but we want to narrow the gap to the top."

"Let's wait and see what happens with Red Bull and Honda. Red Bull never tires of saying how good Honda is compared to us. May I remind that Toro Rosso is still behind us?"

Meanwhile, in retrospect, poaching Ricciardo was a masterstroke by Abiteboul who revealed why he went for the Australian, "His laughter and his positive attitude. Things that may have been a bit absent from our team, sometimes you need a bit of fresh wind and energy."

"The reasons are obvious why Red Bull did not allow Ricciardo to test our car in Abu Dhabi. They probably do not want him to give us any good tips early on in which direction we can improve the car. All these obstacles that Red Bull puts in our way shows me that we are heading in the right direction."

Asked to rate their 2018 season - good, mediocre or bad - Abiteboul replied, "It was a good season, but also a season mixed with joy and frustration."

"We spent most of the season in the game, which was our goal. From the Spanish Grand Prix to Abu Dhabi we were fourth. It was a season in which we continued to build our team and improve collaboration between Viry-Chatillon and Enstone."

"All our development capacities have improved. We were able to convince Daniel Ricciardo of our project and have put together with him and Hülkenberg for 2019 one of the best driver pairings in the field."

"[Fourth] was important for motivation. It was important for us to be the first team behind the top three and to have scored twice as many points as last year."

"But now we have to look ahead. We cannot deny that we are one to one and a half seconds off pole position. That is a cause for concern," insisted the Renault F1 team chief.

In recent years the French team have climbed steadily from ninth in the constructors' championship in 2016 to sixth in 2017 and now fourth, the next hurdle is probably the toughest, turning the Big Three of Formula 1 into the Big Four, or bumping a rival team out of that exclusive club.