Reliability first - Renault to limit initial engine potential

With new rule changes over engine limits in F1 this season, Renault's approach to reliability is safety first.

Renault are planning to make initial "voluntary compromises" with their engines for the 2018 Formula One season in a bid to ensure full reliability.

This season, F1 has a new three-engine limit meaning that early problems for teams could prove problematic towards the end of the campaign, and Renault, having endured reliability issues in 2017, are taking a safety-first approach.

Consequently, the French team are putting reliability first for the season-opener in Melbourne before making upgrades with future engines.

Managing director Cyril Abiteboul told Autosport: "We have decided voluntarily to make some compromises for engine number one in order to make sure that we have got the right platform.

"If you come to the first race and you start to have reliability problems, then that is not just that race - it compromises the whole season. You cannot afford to do that.

"It is about setting the right baseline, having the right platform and building a plan for the season - trying in particular to synchronise development at the factory with the introduction of new engines because we are very limited.

"The fewer engines you have the more rigid you need to be in the implementation of performance. So the focus is very much on reliability."