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Renault believe that their 2017 engine power is "there or thereabouts" with Ferrari, as the French manufacturer looks to close down their rivals.
Renault struggled to produce a competitive power unit in 2014 when the V6 hybrid era was introduced. Their struggles continued into 2015 but in 2016 they made some gains on Ferrari.
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Chief technical officer of Renault Bob Bell says that they are still behind Mercedes and possibly only slightly behind Ferrari.
"It's certainly behind Mercedes, there or thereabouts with Ferrari, maybe slightly off but not by much," he said. "Renault has closed the gap to Mercedes. You only have to look at Red Bull's performance last year, they've been able to take the fight to Mercedes on many occasions. If nothing else that indicates not only a very good chassis but the engine has moved on a lot."
Bell thinks they need to make big strides for the 2017 season, but admits it may not be until 2018 that the gap to Mercedes is completely closed.
"We have to close that gap and we'll make another step over winter," he said. "But whether that will see complete closure or not, you just can't tell. There's no way of knowing. We believe we can, given time. It might possibly not be this winter but certainly by the end of next year and into 2018, we ought to be right on it."
Bell went on to praise the personnel at Renault who have worked tirelessly to try and produce a competitive power unit.
"It is massively impressive what they've achieved because they really set out with the mandate to make sure at the very least the engine was absolutely rock solid in terms of reliability and they've 100% achieved that," he said.
"It was probably the most reliable engine on the grid last year and that's a huge credit to them but that hasn't stopped them putting a lot of performance in the engine.
"It's taken some big steps and the great thing is that they did deliver what they said they would in an engine upgrade, and that's not always an easy thing to achieve."
Fergal Walsh
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