Renault not showing full potential - Boullier

Renault boss Eric Boullier has admitted his team has underperformed at recent races and believes the car has been capable of taking the fight to Mercedes.

Renault has scored just two points from the last four races despite strong showings in free practice and qualifying, and has finished outside the top 15 on four occasions. It is currently fifth in the constructors' standings, 73 points behind Mercedes and 21 points clear of Force India, but Boullier is concerned that the gap to the teams behind has been steadily closing at recent races.


"For a few races now it has been clear that our pace is better than these competitors," Boullier said. "At times we have even matched the competitiveness of Mercedes. We know where we are in terms of pace, which is between fourth and fifth place on the grid and we just want to ensure we get to the end of the race weekend with some points to our name. That alone will solidify our position as the fifth best team on this year's grid.

"It is our only target now that we get our car up amongst the points and show people that this team is ready to launch its assault on next year's championship. For now, it's heads down and all eyes focussed on giving this team a result to be proud of in the UAE."

Renault failed to score points at the last race in India and technical director James Allison admitted the result had left him frustrated.

"I am as fed up about it now as I was in the immediate aftermath of the race," he said. "In every session of the weekend it was clear that the car had sufficient pace for a good result on Sunday. Despite this, poor qualifying laps from both cars, Vitaly's penalty from Korea, Bruno losing his KERS in the race and a few mistakes from both drivers led to us coming home empty handed."
And Allison warned that Abu Dhabi could be an even tougher challenge due to the characteristics of the Yas Marina circuit.

"Our car performs relatively better in high speed corners at tracks which place a fair burden on the front tyres," he said. "Yas Marina is biased towards lower speed corners which place a larger emphasis on rear tyre and traction performance."

But Boullier expectations are unwavering: "From a team side of things, we expect to use the Abu Dhabi race weekend as an opportunity to secure our fifth place in the championship, and to secure as many points as possible."