Renault team principal Eric Boullier has admitted that they are currently underperforming after a promising start to the season.
Team boss admits they need to arrest mid-season slump
Renault team principal Eric Boullier has admitted that they are currently underperforming and need to up their game during the remaining races of the Formula One season.
Although Renault suffered a blow pre-season when star driver Robert Kubica was seriously injured in a rally accident, they nevertheless made a promising start to the year.
Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld respectively earned podium finishes in Australia and Malaysia, suggesting that Renault might be able to push frontrunning teams Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.
They have suffered a slump more recently, however, with Petrov collecting just 10 points from his last four races and Heidfeld nine.
Boullier, though, is convinced the Enstone-based marque can get back on track as he said: "We had a very strong start to the season with a couple of podiums.
"But obviously we have now had a few races where we haven't performed as well as we need to.
"We know we have to react well, and we think we have a clear understanding of what may have gone wrong and we've started to correct it.
"If our car was so good at the beginning of the season, we must be able to get that level of performance back for the remaining 11 races.
"Now is a good time to really, really push and comprehend why we haven't been able to keep our pace relative to the other teams on the grid."
Something that differentiates Renault from their rivals this season is their use of a forward-pointing exhaust on the R31 car.
The design is a departure in the blown-diffuser concept which has come to prominence as teams explore ways to improve grip.
Complicated
This weekend's British Grand Prix sees the start of a clampdown on the use of off-throttle blown diffusers, however, with Boullier uncertain whether Renault's radical design will affect them in particular.
Assessing the matter, he said: "It's a complicated issue and difficult to state their exact impact just yet.
"What's certain is that we need to anticipate the changes to the regulations in the best way we can.
"It will definitely affect every single team, and it's up to us and our engineers to cope better than our competitors with the changes."
With the team based just 29 miles away from Silverstone, there is naturally the hope of a strong performance this weekend, although Boullier is realistic.
"I think it's important as an English company, and as an English F1 team, to do well at your home race because there's more local attention," he added.
"It's also a tough fight because most teams on the grid are English as well, so it makes it even more exciting.
"The Silverstone track layout is very good, and we've seen many overtaking manoeuvres here in the past so we can expect a strong show and a spectacular race."
