Renault has played down the spate of reliability issues across its works and customer teams in recent races and says they will be addressed with the latest specification of power unit in Austria.
Renault power secured its first win of the season at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but Daniel Ricciardo's victory came in an unpredictable race in which Mercedes and Ferrari both encountered issues and incidents. What's more, three of the six Renault-powered cars retired with reliability problems, marking the second Energy Store issue on Max Verstappen's Red Bull in as many races while Jolyon Palmer's disappointing season continued with a misfire from the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) of his works Renault.
However, there were positives in Baku as a new engine mode unlocked an estimated 0.2s per lap in performance without an upgrade in the power unit hardware. Renault believes the weekend as a whole was positive and is confident new components will solve its reliability issues in Austria.
"In terms of performance we were able to demonstrate on a very power-sensitive circuit that we have made another step forward," engine technical director Remi Taffin said. "This was not through new components, but rather through our continual quest for more power and improvement, concentrating on the details and optimising every element of the package.
"Nico [Hulkenberg] was fighting to be in the top five when he made contact with the wall, and this was on a circuit with a tremendously long straight and a great appetite for horsepower. It was also good for us to be able to cheer the race winner.
"What is also clear is that we did have reliability issues on track; issues which we immediately addressed, but this should not detract from the clear progress which has been made. We have put in place new and better procedures to catch any issues before the cars take to the track and we're working with great diligence in this area.
"For our customer teams, we saw coincidence of issues. The Energy Store issue we have seen has been addressed and the new Energy Stores are to a different specification without this concern. With the ICE, the latest specification addresses the problems we've seen to date. In Austria, we have the latest versions of components and we should not see any repeats of previous woes."
And Taffin is hopeful a little bit more performance can be unlocked in Austria.
"It is quite a power sensitive track and it probably will be in line with Baku in terms of performance expectations. We will consolidate the power improvement made for Baku and aim to deliver more. There is no big plan with brand new upgrades, just continual improvement of the entire package.
"The altitude of the track will be a challenge as the turbo will spin faster to generate the required induction, so that's something we'll monitor. Experiencing a trouble-free weekend will bring points."