Cyril Abiteboul says Renault has made a big step in power unit performance over the winter despite spending fewer engine development tokens than its rivals.
The engine token system is designed to prevent engine manufacturers spending excessive amounts of money on development, but in order to allow the likes of Renault and Honda to catch up this year the FIA allocated 32 tokens -- a significant amount and seven more than originally planned for 2016. However, Renault and Honda have spent fewer tokens than Mercedes and Ferrari so far, with the French manufacturer using just seven tokens compared to biggest spenders Ferrari which used 23.
Different engine components cost different amounts of tokens to upgrade, but Abiteboul warned against linking token spend directly to improvements in on-track performance.
"Well, actually, I think that this is a demonstration that we have used little tokens but I hope in connection to the fact that we have made a substantial step in terms of performance will be actual evidence that there is no connection between token use and performance," he said. "You can use a lot of tokens and bring absolutely nothing in terms of lap time, which actually is maybe something we did last year. I think the whole debate of tokens should go away and we should focus on performance.
"There is a plan to use more tokens during the course of the season, that's the plan and we have made lots of comments about that. Hopefully it will happen, both for the benefit of the Renault works team and also Red Bull."
Abiteboul reiterated that Renault is not expecting miracles in its first year back as a full constructor team.
"I think it will be very tough and I know that there were a lot of comments regarding the time that it took us to make our decision last year. It's not so much the appetite to be in Formula One but to be in a capacity to be successful in Formula One, that was the question mark.
"So we come in that competition with lots of humility. As you mentioned we have been there for quite a long period of time, almost 40 years but we equally we know that the level has raised considerably. So we know it's going to take time; it's a long journey, a long-term plan but we think we have all the ingredients - financial, technical, the support of a large group - to make that a successful one. We're going to take it step by step but it's absolutely possible."