Renault looking to improve "smaller issues" to close gap in engine arms race

Renault technical director Remi Taffin has said that the French manufacturer is confident that it knows what to do to close the gap to Mercedes.

The power unit supplier suffered a dismal campaign last year, failing to win a race and being centre of a public war of words with former works partner Red Bull.

With changes made over the winter, including returning as a full factory-backed team, Renault has noticed improvements so far this year.

"It’s obviously encouraging to see that the power unit is now capable of fighting on track at the front and going for pole positions," said Taffin . "It shows the work we have done has paid off but we know we still need to increase the power output and this is where our focus lies as we know how to achieve that."

With the manufacturer now seen to be able to fight Mercedes-equipped entries, attention has now turned to making more minor adjustments as they look to overhaul their Anglo-German rivals

"We have now got to the point where we are working on the smaller issues to improve the wider picture and give extra performance through driveability or additional power.

"Having a reliable and generally driveable PU was one of our major targets this year and now that has been achieved we can work on the bigger picture, together with Enstone. We’re learning as a team all the time about operating car and every lesson learnt helps for the future."

This weekend's race in Hungary would seemingly play to Renualt's strengths. It's slow nature means that it isn't seen as much of a 'power circuit', but Taffin concedes that Renault may in fact struggle at the twisty Hungaroring.

"We know that slower tracks with lots of tight corners aren’t where our strengths lie. In general the car didn’t perform well over the kerbs and in the slower turns, but with the extensive work we achieved at Silverstone, Budapest should benefit from new parts and a better understanding of the car," he said. "On top of that, Budapest also has short straights between the corners so this could turn into our direction. We hence look forward to Budapest to maximise what we have got."

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