Renault ready for “high maintenance” customers

Renault Sport F1 head Cyril Abiteboul believes his organisation has the capabilities to deal with its new “high maintenance” customer list this year.

Renault will again field its own works team, but in addition will supply highprofile clients Red Bull and now Mclaren with power units after the Woking team’s split from Honda for this term.

Renault has endured a fractured relationship with Red Bull, which now runs its engines branded as Tag-heuer instead, and last year Renault also publicly fell out with Toro Rosso, shortly before it took over the Honda contract.

When asked how prepared Renault is to deal with an even higher- profile customer in the form of Mclaren, Abiteboul said: “It will be challenging. There is more positive than there is negative in those relationships, even though I accept it’s going to be high maintenance and going to be an interesting season to manage. “It’s interesting because it’s challenging – but at the same time it’s providing motivation to everyone. “Also, Mclaren has a wealth of experience and can show us the way to push our engine, but also new ways of making sure we have a winning package. Frankly I’m looking forward to it. It’s good to be in a competitive environment, and it’s also good to be challenged.”