Renault says it is delivering on expectations with its 2017 power unit, but will only bring further updates once it can guarantee reliability.
The French manufacturer was targeting a 0.3s lap time gain over the winter, with a similar step to come from updates over the course of the season. During testing an overheating issue was discovered on the MGU-K -- the part of the energy recovery system that recovers and deploys energy from and to the rear axle -- forcing Renault to revert to its 2016-spec MGU-K for the opening round in Australia. The plan is to reintroduce the 2017-spec MGU-K as soon as it is working reliably and Abiteboul is confident it will help to close the gap to rival manufacturers Ferrari and Mercedes.