Renault are back in Formula 1 as a fully fledged works team and ahead of the 2016 Formula 1 world championship season opening Australian Grand Prix, at Albert Park in Melbourne, management figures spoke about the year ahead.
Cyril Abiteboul: "We have all the ingredients to have a bright future. Both Enstone and Viry have been building race-winning cars for over 20 years in Enstone’s case and over 40 at Viry. We have got a fantastic group of people with a good team spirit that we need to protect and develop even further. We want to be one of the best places to work in F1. For that we need a good equilibrium, good management and a good atmosphere, plus the tools to motivate people to do the best job they can."
"We knew we would start the year on the back foot as we made our decision to purchase the team very late in 2015. However we still made the first test looking professional with our new identity and new kit and were ready to leave the garage at 9am on the first day. We have good things coming up on the power unit and some strong mechanical and aero developments from Enstone. Podiums are not necessarily on the menu – I think it would take a strange cocktail of circumstances for us to be there – but we should be able to fight for points in the course of the season. 2017 is still the main plan so we are laying those foundations now.
"I think we have a fantastic driver line up. They bring the energy of young people who want to make a point. Both drivers want to prove a lot, but they deserve to be in F1 and will gain in experience as we gain in experience. They have shown they are winners in their respective careers ; Jolyon has won GP2 and Kevin Formula Renault 3.5. Kevin is a natural talent and has sufficient experience to be a leader for the technical team and Jolyon will benefit from having a strong team-mate.
"They are both smart as well, which will aid us with the raft of changes we see this year, including the ban on radio communications between pit wall and car and the new qualifying format. I am pretty sure we have two quite clever and smart drivers who will respond to this new philosophy and I can’t wait to see it play out on track."
Fred Vasseur: "Testing was positive. The car’s baseline is consistent, the balance is good and the drivers’ feedback is positive and optimistic. So the first impressions are good at this point. It was a big challenge to be in Barcelona considering we took over the team very late but we were ready to go on the first day at 9am. We didn’t encounter any major problems and were able to sort out the small issues on reliability in the first test, which meant we came to the second test in a good way to find additional performance. Although we have a lot of work to do, everything is in progress. We have to prioritise where the most gains can be found, but we head to Melbourne in relatively good shape.
"We know very well that we started this project extremely late and that where we need to go is ambitious, but right now we are not under pressure to achieve results. The road map from Carlos Ghosn is very clear: he wants to fight for podiums in our third year of competition. Therefore we have to make the right moves, and not rush to deliver in Melbourne. If you want to stick to the road map and fight for podiums in three years, you have to look at your competitors…look at their resources, personnel and then you need to have the same targets to fight with them consistently. I am very happy with the quality of the staff so far as the team is dedicated and focussed on the job. Now we have to supplement the workforce we have, but we will do it correctly and find the right people.
"It is very difficult to see where we are ahead of the start of the season. We need to focus on our job and try to improve where we can rather than spending time analysing where we are in relative terms. We have to fight the entire grid and everyone has the same target: to go faster than the guys around them. We need to keep our opposition under pressure and never give up. It won’t be an easy task as we started very late for this season, but we will see for 2017. Ultimately it doesn’t matter where we start, but we need to deliver in line with our targets. We will always aim to finish in the points, but bearing in mind that we only created the team in December, we need to be realistic and not start pointing the finger at anyone.
"I am pleased with both drivers. They are young but ambitious, which will push us in a good way. They are totally focussed on the job and have helped in direction over the first two tests. Jolyon had a few more reliability issues than Kevin during pre-season testing, but the overall feeling is that they are comfortable. They are fully focussed on extracting everything they can from the season and keeping the team motivated."
Bob Bell: "It’s been a relatively easy transition. I knew a lot of the people and the organisations so it has been quite straightforward. We have a mountain of work ahead of us so I am not under any illusions, but initially it’s been highly positive.
"We are in the process of re-resourcing Enstone and part of the road map is to be clear how we build up the resources over a two year timeframe. The head count is around 470 now and needs to be close to 650 in the long term, but it will take us up to 18 months to do it. At Viry it is less about resourcing and more about restructuring to make it mesh with Enstone and fit for purpose in the coming years. In parallel we need to think about the design of the car and consider our priorities. We need to ascertain where we will find most gains for 2017 but also look forward to 2018. It’s a reasonably protracted process to get to where we need to get, but we still need to show good progress and move forward in all areas in the meantime.
"In truth, recruitment is about finding the right mix of people. We need fresh, young inexperienced blood mixed with older hands. It’s about getting that balance right and it’s very important not to rush it and take people because they are available or because we have a slot. We need to make sure we have the right mix.
"The first manifestation of how Enstone and Viry are working together is the car we have seen on track. What conclusions were you able to draw from testing?
"The first and most obvious conclusion is that we have a strong and dedicated team who are able to bring a car together in a short space of time! It naturally does not represent the pinnacle of integration we would aspire to but we will get there. First and foremost we know that the team has strength and depth, and we will go even further in the future. We are actually in good shape and were able to do fairly thorough checks as the car we brought to Barcelona is pretty much what we will run in Melbourne. We were pleasantly surprised. Although we are down on aero and power, the car is nicely balanced, consistent and good to develop. We didn’t need to chase a lot of time finding the balance so there’s a lot confidence we can get up to speed relatively quickly. If we can sneak into the top ten in Melbourne we’ll be pleased with that.
"We have to balance resources, but we need to improve in every area. That said, it’s much easier to do this when you have a well-balanced car as we know that real performance can come from balance and driveability, and we have already made some good steps in this area. Ultimately we need to concentrate our efforts on where we get the most bang for buck.
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