F1: Renault puts performance work on hold

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo says Renault has "put aside" chasing more performance from its Formula 1 engine until it has sorted its reliability problems.

Ricciardo is already onto his fourth engine of the 2015 season after a troubled start to the campaign for Renault, which has been off the pace of rivals Mercedes and Ferrari and struggled with reliability.

While Red Bull has brought a significant aerodynamic upgrade to this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix to improve the performance of the car, Ricciardo says the same cannot be said for the Renault engine.

"For now the performance side is not going full steam ahead because of the reliability issues," said the Australian. "The main stuff we are trying to resolve this weekend is reliability.

"Obviously with the fourth engine, we want to try and get this as far as it will go [in terms of mileage]. That extra half a tenth of performance, I think we're just going to put that aside until we are 100 percent sure with what's happening with reliability."

Ricciardo suffered a spectacular engine blow-up at the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix, but he says he does not expect to have to turn down his fourth engine to make it last longer.

"There was definitely some understanding taken from Bahrain, so steps have been made to not let that happen again," he said. "They're confident they have pushed the mileage quite a long way further, so reliability wise it looks like there have been some conclusions.

"When we have to run it in practice, we'll minimize all the high-performance running and minimize laps in general. But in qualifying and the race we'll use the maximum. It's a risk we need to take – we can't compromise."

BIG STEP WITH CAR UPGRADES

While Renault is unable to work on improving performance, Red Bull has brought a range of car developments to Barcelona, and Ricciardo believes it will get the team back on terms with those ahead.

"I don't want to get too excited but I think this weekend has the potential to put us back in that fight with Williams and get us closer to Ferrari," he said of the parts, which include a new nose for the RB11. "We have a few aero parts which should help us – these are things we have obviously pushed through as quickly as possible.

"Obviously everyone else has got some parts but this is the biggest step we should make since Melbourne. On paper the aero gains should put us closer [to the front], but it always depends what the other guys have done.

"For curing some of the balance issues we've had, these updates sound promising and I have a positive feeling."

Originally on Autosport.com