Renault says the role engine specialists Ilmor is playing in closing the gap to Mercedes and Ferrari has been overplayed in the media.
Since the introduction of the current engine regulations in 2014, Renault has struggled to match its rivals, with its internal combustion engine (ICE) proving to be its main weakness. Last year Renault enlisted the help of performance engine specialists Ilmor, headed up by Mario Illien, and will continue to work with the company this year.
But Renault Sport F1's managing director Cyril Abiteboul said the relationship, while useful, had been given more media attention than it deserved.
"Mario is the technical director and chairman of Ilmor and Ilmor is one of the many suppliers that Renault sport is using -- we are not only using Ilmor as an external consultancy firm," Abiteboul said. "Obviously it is a symbolic relationship and it has received a lot of publicity, but frankly there are external parties that are more important than Ilmor.
"For instance, Mecachrome as a historic partner is much more important both in value and in terms of final product than Ilmor. But Ilmor will play a role also, we hope."
Renault chief technical officer Bob Bell, who is overseeing both the chassis and engine programmes, said Ilmor's resources are as important as its brainpower in the relationship.
"Mario is a very, very creative engine designer with bags of experience as well, so it's great to have his input on the creative side without question. But it's more than just trying to extract bright ideas from Mario -- Renault are not short of bright ideas of their own, they have lots of very clever people within their own organisation -- it's as much about having increased capacity -- more dyno capacity, more engineering capacity -- to just bring the level up a little bit more.
"Ilmor will only be involved with the development of the internal combustion side of the engine, they don't at the moment have expertise in the electrical side. We will be working very closely with them, as an extension of our existing capability, to develop the internal combustion engine."