Team boss Cyril Abiteboul reveals why Renault have struggled to start the season

Aussie F1 star Daniel Ricciardo has been struggling this season but his Renault team boss has revealed the reason why.

Dan Ricciardo ready to do better than the first two practice sessions.

Aussie F1 star Daniel Ricciardo’s start to his time at Renault has not been ideal with the opening day at Monaco continuing the poor start.

But team boss Cyril Abiteboul has revealed he is confident Ricciardo and teammate Nico Hulkenberg are set to turn a corner.

The Renault boss revealed a conrod issue that reduced power for Hulkenberg way back at Bahrain in the second round had finally been fixed.

It’s been a horror start for Renault with Ricciardo and Hulkenberg bringing back just one seventh placed finish each.

It’s seen Renault, who were looking to be the best of the rest behind the big three in the sport, languishing back in eighth in the constructor’s championship, a long way behind Red Bull in third.

Ricciardo and Hulkenberg are 12th and 13th respectively in the driver’s championship.

And Monaco has not started well with Ricciardo finishing 11th and a disastrous 17th, while Hulkenberg fared only slightly better at 7th and 16th.

But Abiteboul said the team was forced to run their cars at reduced power in China and Azerbaijan after Hulkenberg’s retirement in Bahrain.

Abiteboul admitted the team kept the conrod issue on the down low amid the horror start to the season as the team scrambled to fix the issue.

Daniel Ricciardo still draws the crowds in Monaco.

“This winter we were given the opportunity to properly focus on power gain, and competitiveness gain,” said Abiteboul. “What it meant was we consciously decided to focus on performance, to the detriment of reliability.

“It means that a number of engines that should have been used on the dyno to secure reliability were actually used to develop performance, so what it meant was a very good start in terms of engine power, but reliability that was below standard.

“Two reasons, one which you know which was the MGU-K, and one which you don’t know, which was that Nico’s failure in Bahrain was actually a conrod failure, so typically a part that you don’t want to break, because it’s a part at the bottom of the engine, and a fundamental part.”

The team then raced to upgrade Ricciardo and Hulkenberg’s engines before the last round in Spain.

While Abiteboul said the team kept the power in reserve for the Spanish Grand Prix, Renault is hoping to unleash the beast in Monaco, where Ricciardo is defending champion.

“It was a problem that we didn’t identify over the winter, we didn’t really have a back-up plan, but at the same time I can say that it was a blow for the organisation that meant some containment measures after the race that was massively reducing the power that was delivered for the following races,” explained Abiteboul.

“I can tell you it was also an amazing reaction from everyone involved, and in five weeks we managed to identify the problem, understand the problem, come up with a new design, source new parts, test the parts, sign off the parts on complete cycles, and build new engines in enough quantity for ourselves and McLaren in time for Spain.”

Daniel Ricciardo has his game face on.

After the less than impressive first day for Renault in Monaco, Ricciardo admitted the team was a long way off the pace in the second practice session.

“I felt relatively comfortable in the morning and I was pleased that we got up to speed quite quickly,” Ricciardo told Renault at the end of the day.

“However, we didn’t make the step we needed in the afternoon. We did make some changes, but maybe they didn’t help as well as we’d have liked. Following the afternoon session, we have a bit more homework to do to really find that extra bit.

“As ever around Monaco, it’s awesome to be back driving a Formula 1 car on these streets. That’s always special.”

All F1 races, practice and qualifying are live and on demand on Kayo Sports. Kayo has more than 50 sports for streaming from just $25 per month for two devices at once. Click here to trial it free for 14 days.

Monaco Practice 3 is schedule to start at 8pm AEST, before qualifying at 11pm.