Renault hope a major upgrade will translate to a step forward on the track at the European Grand Prix in Valencia next weekend.
“We’ve got quite a nice upgrade coming, with a new front wing and a new floor, which we believe will take us another step further forward,” said Renault’s chief engineer Alan Permane.
Permane went on to say that his team had constantly been developing the car since the season’s start, and he was astonished by the rate of progress.
“We have certainly seen an incredible rate of development this year. If we take the gap to pole position as a measure of how much we’ve improved, we’ve seen the gap steadily reduce race by race as we’ve developed quicker than some of our competitors,” he added.
“And with the updates we have planned for this weekend, that trend will hopefully continue.”
First driver Robert Kubica echoed the technical man’s optimism, highlighting that the difference between their own Anglo-French squad and the front runners would not be insurmountable.
“The gap to the front of the field is not so big, but we still have to gain a lot of ground, and we can only do that if we keep pushing and keep working,” he said.
“We will have a new package on the car this weekend, and we hope that will bring us another step forward. But every team will be bringing updates, so it will depend how much they bring and how much they improve.
“In Valencia, anything could happen, and we need to wait and see if the order is shuffled and how we will perform compared to Mercedes.”
