Renault 2020 livery presentation, Melbourne, 2020

No preferential treatment for Ocon or Ricciardo – Abiteboul

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In the round-up: Renault managing director Cyril Abiteboul says neither of his drivers will receive preferential treatment despite Daniel Ricciardo’s impending departure to McLaren at the end of the season.

What they say

Abiteboul said Ricciardo’s decision to leave doesn’t mean the team will favour Esteban Ocon this year:

I really believe that we can do better this year. We certainly have a car that should allow us to do better. That’s the focus here and now.

What I can say is that Daniel is a great driver and a great personality so that will be the profile for anyone who comes next. But right now the focus is on what we need to do.

There won’t be any preference treatment between Esteban and Daniel on the back of his decision because, as Esteban has said, it’s not the policy of the team. It’s also not a necessity, to be honest, I’m not fighting for any championship as we stand right now so it would make absolutely no sense.

Daniel would be fully involved in the development process of the car also because the structure is that the car is more or less frozen between this year and next year. Also McLaren will have to use all their tokens on pure chassis engine integration. So no performance development there. So that will give us the opportunity to work extremely normally with Daniel.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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23 comments on “No preferential treatment for Ocon or Ricciardo – Abiteboul”

  1. Preferential treatment? Danny will be lucky to get 4 wheel guns for a race after hurting that salty man childs ego…

    1. Yeah, Abiteboul is a dishonest, petty man to begin with. I don’t believe him for a second.

      1. Cyril is a toddler.

        1. I know he messed up big time with Renault engines entering the new era, but what’s the basis of this vitriol of his person? I must have missed something.

          1. @balue the prevailing attitude is that Cyril is seen as an antagonistic figure, tending to cause unneeded conflict with partners or within his team that could easily have been avoided.

            For example, there were many who felt that a number of the swipes that Abiteboul made at Honda and at Red Bull in 2019 were really unproductive – such as claiming that Honda’s power unit was producing 20kW less than Renault’s and that Red Bull was “manipulating the data” and “hiding facts” from the press, or berating the media that they were falling for Red Bull’s communication strategy on Honda and that Renault made Red Bull what it is today – as they did nothing to help the team and simply made him and Renault look very bitter with their unprovoked criticism.

            Witness also the way that Abiteboul rather pointedly criticised Ricciardo for moving to McLaren and attacked him for his lack of loyalty, having gloated to Horner only a few short years ago about how they’d persuaded Ricciardo to join them.

            There are also those who question, with the resources that Renault have placed at Abiteboul’s use, whether he should have done a better job. In terms of budget and raw headcount, his team is quite a bit larger than the midfield pack, but didn’t seem to perform significantly better than them.

            When you look at what Renault has achieved now compared to the plans that Abiteboul outlined a few years ago, there is a feeling the team has underperformed. Back in 2016 and 2017, Abiteboul had the objective of winning races by 2020 and challenging for the championship by 2021 – now, even if 2020 is a rather different year and the plans for the change in regulations has been put back to 2022, Renault did still miss their targets in 2019 by falling back to 5th in the WCC and failing to make up as much ground to the front runners and Abiteboul had expected.

            There is also the feeling that Abiteboul is quick to blame the drivers and to criticise others in the team, rather than necessarily reflecting on his own performance.

            Between 2016 and 2020, Renault have gone through six different drivers (Magnussen, Palmer, Hulkenberg, Sainz Jr, Ricciardo and now Ocon), so there has been no continuity on that front due to the driver line up changing every single year. With Ricciardo leaving in 2021, that is yet another driver change for Renault – which makes it quite a bit harder for the engineers to try and build a working relationship with their drivers when they’re changing from year to year.

            Similarly, Abiteboul has been chopping and changing staff more aggressively in recent times – witness figures like Machin and Chester being thrown out recently, or Matthew Harman, previously the deputy chief designer, becoming the engineering director only last month – which Budkowski has admitted has caused “turbulence” within the team and disrupted development of the RS20.

            It is likely that 2020 will be much like 2019, where the team might well struggle to make headway and instead more or less tread water or possibly even slip further back. It does make people wonder whether Abiteboul is really the right person to be leading Renault, as it feels as if he’s causing unwarranted division simply for the sake of doing so whilst failing to drive the team forward and casting around to blame others.

          2. @balue Cyril ran caterham to the ground, a job he got from Renault, then the same favouritism got him to lead Renault sport f1. Cyril managed to run that down to the ground, he let his ego get the better of him when it came to his relationship with RB.
            Somehow Renault kept him as they re-bought lotus.
            Let’s not talk about the sainz jr/Renault/ Honda switcheroo, didn’t work out for Renault either, and all the other signings.
            Cyril is the type that will throw anyone under the bus, he always finds a scapegoat.

      2. Cant believe the example being set by letting this man run the team. What does it tell us about the top management at Renault-Nissan? They see this and allow it and let Cyril be a brand ambassador? Just wow.. would never buy a product of theirs

  2. Alonso and Vettel vying for a seat at a midfield team?

    I think the Aston Martin hype has reached its logical conclusion…

    1. What would be the reason for Vettel to get into a midfield team?
      He seemed bored in Ferrari. how much would he care for racing for no chance of winning?

    2. Def. “hype” promotional publicity of an extravagant or contrived kind. Most definitely.
      Not sure if it is “hype” generated by wishful dreamers, or is it coming from Aston Martin.? Likely the former.
      Both seats at Racing Point seem to be pretty solid for several reasons. That could change if one of them made the jump to the Three Pointed Star. Wonder which one.?

  3. Why are people still speculating about anyone going to RP soon-to-be Aston Martin even though both Checo and Lance are already under contract for next year?

    As for Dr. Marko’s words: How would China be more guaranteed than either Abu Dhabi or Bahrain or the only one outside Europe, LOL?

    1. @jerejj The past has showed us that contracts mean nothing in Formula One. Anyway, I also don’t believe Vettel and/or Alonso ends up there.

      1. Either would be an upgrade over Stroll… Although, so would Vandoorne, Vergne, Newgarden or even Ericsson, Hartley and Guitierrez, lol.

        1. or even Ericsson, Hartley and Guitierrez

          I’d take Lance over any of these, even without his dad’s money.

    2. 1st question: Because “Checo and Lance staying at Alfa Romeo for the forseeable future” does not make for lengthy or click-generating copy.

      2nd question: Money is king and Helmut doesn’t always think things through before speaking.

      1. @alianora-la-canta

        1st question: Because “Checo and Lance staying at Alfa Romeo for the forseeable future” does not make for lengthy or click-generating copy.

        To be fair, it would, given they don’t drive for Alfa Romeo!

        As for whether either, Stroll especially, might be moved aside to make room for Vettel or someone else, this is a subject I addressed at greater length a while back.

        1. @keithcollantine *rolls on the floor laughing* How, exactly, did I miss that error? (As it happens, I disagree with your conclusion in the linked article, on the grounds that Lance is improving and while he continues to do so, Racing Point is likely to support that improvement. If Lance was taken by a faster team, it would be different, but until then, there are other things than PR and nepotism involved in the equation).

  4. Cyril Abitterboul

  5. Hakk the Rack
    27th June 2020, 9:56

    So Irriiteboul practically confirmed Ocon’s number 1 status here.

    1. Where do you see that? Frankly I believe him when he says there is no need for a number 1 and a number 2 as they are not fighting for either Championship. It would serve them no purpose whatsoever to take from one driver in favour of the other when their main goal, their only goal, needs be to advance the car. No I’m quite sure we’ll see both drivers doing their best to help grow the team. Of course that is in Ocon’s best interest but I don’t think it is in DR to slack off just because he’s leaving them.

  6. Riiiiiiight

  7. Cyril strikes me as the most dishonest team boss of the last 20 years, and that includes the utter scum that is Briatore.

    I’d believe they’re racing with square wheels before I’d believe anything he says.

    1. Briatore is the worst Cyril didn’t do anything like what he did..

Comments are closed.