Renault falls to 5th place among manufacturers!

Crash! The Renault F1 Team has dropped from 3rd to 5th place in the constructors’ standings. A new surprise podium at Imola two weeks ago… and a single point at the finish of the Turkish Grand Prix this Sunday, with Daniel Ricciardo finishing 10th, ahead of his teammate Esteban Ocon, who finished 11th.

The potential was there!

The cards were on the table: a 5th position with Ricciardo on the grid, two spots ahead of Ocon, 7th. The worst part is both drivers got off to a very good start… until the first corner.

« We had an excellent start but I found myself stuck between Lewis [Hamilton] and Esteban at the first corner, » explained Ricciardo at the finish this Sunday. Especially since the Australian was also boxed in during the first few meters by Pérez, in front of him and to his right.

First consequence: this bad-taste sandwich inside the first corner, Hamilton on his left and Ocon on his right. I had nowhere to go. I touched my teammate, and it’s a situation you always want to avoid, regretted the former Red Bull driver, 7th at the end of the first lap.

On a two-stop strategy (on the 10th and 32nd laps), Dan the Man failed to properly heat his intermediate tires. Overtaken by Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz on strategy, then by Lando Norris on the 47th lap, Ricciardo conceded this paradox: at certain moments, I was told I was one of the fastest in the race, then my tires were completely dead a few laps later so it was a bit of a lottery!

A lottery with a 10th place finish and a small point, far from the 2nd place of Racing Point’s Pérez. On a personal level, Ricciardo also drops in the drivers’ standings, from 4th to 6th place, with a total of 96 points.

Already mentioned in our review of the French drivers, Esteban Ocon’s race is truly frustrating. While Ricciardo got away cleanly from their clash in the first turn, the Frenchman went wide due to the collision. Frustrating as he dropped from a potential 3rd place to 19th place at the end of the first turn. Let’s also thank Bottas’s kamikaze move, who forgot to brake at the entrance of turn 9.

Ocon’s car suffered in the incident: a puncture on the left rear tire and a forced return at the end of the first lap to fit a new set of wet tires. The Normand’s climb up the standings concluded with an 11th place finish.

I was happy with my start since it was probably my best take-off this year. We did our best and we will move on quickly » particularly emphasized Ocon to journalists’ microphones in Turkey.

Ocon: « I was happy with my start, probably my best take-off this year »

18 points behind Racing Point, the new 3rd in the constructors’ championship.

If the team principal Cyril Abiteboul has not publicly expressed himself, it is the executive director Marcin Budkowski who spoke about this very disappointing result in Turkey.

Beyond the contact between its two drivers, Daniel seemed competitive in the first part of the race, but his pace deteriorated significantly after his second stop. We were struggling with his tires.

Esteban made a great effort to finish eleventh and we couldn’t have hoped for better after the first lap incidents and the lack of pace on intermediates.

Result of the races, the Renault team scored just one point. Meanwhile, Racing Point obtained 19 points and McLaren 15. In a tight race before Turkey, the brand with the diamond lost ground and found itself 5th in the constructors’ standings with 136 points, compared to 154 for Racing Point (18 points behind for Renault) and 149 for McLaren (13 points behind). And Ferrari comes back to 6 points, with the 2nd and 4th places from the Vettel-Leclerc duo!

In plain terms, Renault has used up a wild card before the last three races of the season, which will take place in dry and hot conditions in Bahrain starting this weekend, and Abu Dhabi in mid-December.

We expect to be more competitive on more conventional and grippy surfaces. We aim to replicate the fight for third place in the championship, hopes Budkowski. The goal is there for Renault: to reclaim the 3rd place in the constructors’ standings, which would be a first since 2007!

Au championnat des constructeurs c’est une très bonne opération pour @RacingPointF1 qui passe de la 5ème place à la 3ème ! Renault perd gros en glissant à la 5ème place à 18 points derrière Racing Point et 6 points seulement devant Ferrari pic.twitter.com/RznqPM8Kqz

— Motors Inside – F1 ???????? (@MotorsInside) November 15, 2020