The French firm seem to be quicker than Haas, Sauber and Manor at the rear of the field, but adrift of the Williams, Red Bull, Force India, Toro Rosso fight behind Ferrari and Mercedes. That responsibility is likely to fall on the shoulders of Magnussen who has just one season of F1 under his belt and spent 2016 on the sidelines after being dropped by McLaren.Īnd it's McLaren who Renault could be battling in 2016 based on pre-season testing. Palmer at least knows the team after a season as reserve driver, but as a rookie he cannot be expected to lead the team. The loss of Romain Grosjean is a major blow, and the team will head into 2016 with one of the least experienced line-ups on the grid in Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer. But the RS16 was a regular cause of red flags throughout testing. While the opening two days of testing were blighted by unreliability, the team finished the eight days of running with over 2200 miles completed. Big steps are needed this year or there is the very real possibility of the works team receiving a sole supply by default rather than choice. In an ideal world for Red Bull they wouldn't have had Renault engines in 2016 due to the unit's performance and that can only be regarded as an embarrassment for a firm which pushed hard for the new regulations. Then we should be able to start competing with some of the teams ahead of us.' 'I think what we are hopeful of is further down the line into the season when hopefully that power unit develops what it is saying it should do. 'The power unit guys have done a fairly decent job over the winter,' Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports during testing. Quite what impact Mario Illien has - and the deal for Red Bull to run TAG-Heuer branded Renault unit have - remains to be seen. The team at the engine base in Viry-Chatillon must make giant strides for Renault's investment to make sense.

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