Renault's new chief technical officer Bob Bell sees no reason why his team cannot emulate Mercedes' recent success in Formula One and has outlined the changes that need to be made to put the French manufacturer back on top in the next few years.
Bell was technical director at Renault during its championship-winning years in the mid-2000s and later became team principal before the team was sold in 2010. After leaving Renault he joined Mercedes as technical director between 2011 and 2014, playing a big part in the team's preparations ahead of its current dominance in Formula One.
Bell, who currently has control over Renault's chassis department in Enstone and its engine project in Viry-Chatillon, believes Renault has the potential to match Mercedes given the right amount of time and preparation.
"It's all relative in F1 and you have to compare it with the benchmark, which at the moment is Mercedes," he said. "Mercedes did several things that led to their current dominance and the seeming demise in Renault's capability, and that was starting the project earlier, bringing more resources to bear on the project earlier and being better organised for dealing with that project. So when you put all these things together, it doesn't come as a big surprise that they caught Renault napping and did a much more credible job.
"It's not because Renault aren't as clever, there are just as many clever people in Renault as there are at Mercedes, and corporate Renault has as big a chequebook as Mercedes has, but what it's lacking at the minute is just time to catch up. But catch up, we will.
"There is no doubt that in this era of Formula One there is a big advantage to being a works team and manufacturer backed. It's not just about the few tenths that might arise by being able to package the power unit in the chassis better, it's about having more capacity and more bright-thinking people that are focused on a particular problem or issue. That brings real performance and is absolutely the way to achieve in the current generation of Formula One."
Enstone overhaul: Aerodynamics "still critical"
Renault has taken over the old Lotus team, which has struggled financially for several years and seen many of its senior technical staff leave for other teams. Although Lotus managed to score a podium at the Belgian Grand Prix against the odds last year, Bell says the Enstone factory and its staff count needs to be significantly bolstered over the coming years.
"It is still largely a numbers game," he explained. "We have lost a lot of aerodynamicists, we've lost a lot of designers, we have lost a lot of operations people ... it's not magic, we just need to put those numbers back in place again. It doesn't matter how clever you are, it's a matter of being clever and having resources. You need both. It's pretty obvious where we need to make the investment, in people, equipment and facilities. It's not particularly revolutionary and it's clear to us what we need to do.
"We just need to be patient and realise that that is not something you can just do overnight. You need to build those resources up, find the right people and we have taken the correct approach that we are building for the future, looking to the long term and Renault are in Formula One for the long haul and we are not going to shortchange ourselves by making a dash to build up quickly with less than best resources. We'll take our time, find the best people and find the best resources. We'll take that approach.
"Although it has swung much more to being a power unit dominated formula, aerodynamics is still critical and hasn't gone away. On the chassis side we still need to build that up and become a very, very credible player in that area of design and development."
Engines: Renault takes priority over Red Bull
Arguably Renault's biggest challenge is turning its V6 turbo hybrid into a power unit capable of matching Mercedes and Ferrari. In order to hit its targets, Bell says the development of the engine will need to prioritise Renault's demands over customer team Red Bull, even though both will receive the same specification of engine throughout the season.
"You have to bias your development to suit one direction, otherwise you will end up with compromise that doesn't satisfy anybody," Bell said. "Clearly now as a works team our development direction will be focused on Enstone's requirements, but we are also a good and conscientious supplier and will listen to our customers and take seriously what they say to try and achieve a balance between what they need and what the works team needs.
"But at the end of the day, Renault is back as a works team and if a direction or decision has to be taken it will be one that naturally favours the works team -- in exactly the same way that Mercedes and Ferrari do."
Don't expect too much in 2016
However, Renault's resurgence is very much a medium- to long-term project. Bell is playing down Renault's chances in 2016 and says his team is already on the back foot after redesigning its car for Renault engines again over the winter.
"The expectations for this year are very realistic. We have to accept that the decision to put a Renault engine back in the car was made very late in the season and it's a very complex task putting a power unit in a chassis nowadays. Although the technical regulations do help a little bit because it mandates a commonality between the power units, it's still a big challenge. All our efforts have been going into making sure we produce a credible car from a reliability point of view.
"It means that our opportunity to develop the car has been somewhat restricted and of course most of the teams that will be competing this season will have been developing their 2016 cars from quite early in 2015. Enstone did not have that luxury because they were resource starved and could barely keep the work going that was necessary to keep the 2015 car operating successfully, never mind developing the 2016 one. Expectations for this season is understandably pragmatic and on the cautious side."