Abiteboul: Renault are disappointed and must be hard on itself

Renault F1 team managing director Cyril Abiteboul has admitted the team's disappointment with their run in the Australian Grand Prix last weekend and has insisted the squad to be hard on itself in order to react the correct way. 

The French works-team are very ambitious, and one of those ambitions is to get as close as possible to the top three teams in Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes (for now, anyway).

However, Renault endured some frustrations in Melbourne, with its cars' full potential never really being demonstrated. Daniel Ricciardo, making his debut for the team, went wide at the start of the race and consequently hit a bump which took the car's front wing off. The Aussie was forced to retire early at his home track.

Nico Hulkenberg, though, drove a really good race for the French manufacturer, finishing in P7 - just behind Kevin Magnussen, after a fascinating duel between the two rivals.

Abiteboul insisted he expected more from his team in the opening race, but he believes with some modifications to the car, they can hope for a smoother weekend in Bahrain in a few days time.

"In seasons gone by, we would have been satisfied with a seventh-place finish at the first race of the season, but this year we were a little disappointed," Abiteboul said in the team's preview of this weekend's round two of the Formula 1 season.

"We feel our car is capable of fighting at the top end of the midfield. However, that wasn't always displayed when it really counted in qualifying and during the race.

"We are determined to show more in Bahrain. We have to underline the step we've made on the engine side, and the second grand prix of 2019 is an opportunity to showcase that. We will bring some aero updates, as we will do at every race.

"We also need to target consistency over the course of the entire weekend, delivering a balanced and reliable car in all sessions to allow the drivers to extract respective maximum performance.

"Equally, we need to target operational excellence in all areas. Having both cars inside the points is the target and we want to show the qualities of our team. We have to be hard on ourselves if we're to keep on our path."