Team Talk - Sunday in Mexico

Renault

Carlos Sainz, Renault, Mexican Grand Prix

Nico Hulkenberg
“It was a very frustrating race today, I’m disappointed. We were doing well and a very good result slipped through our fingers. We have some work to do on reliability because we lost some potential points today. It’s a shame but this is racing.”

Carlos Sainz
“It was a difficult day for the team. We had a very good start, but in the first two laps I wasn’t very comfortable and had a strange feeling with the car. I had a high-speed spin and flat-spotted my tyres and had to box early. From then on, although our pace was ok, I was at the back and couldn’t do much to re-join the cars in the points. In the end, my retirement was due to a mechanical issue with the steering.”

Cyril Abiteboul, managing director
“The Mexican Grand Prix was a difficult one for us with multiple incidents throughout the weekend. Both Nico’s retirement and one of our partner teams’ car is a reminder that reliability remains an issue and the consequences weigh heavily on us and our customer teams. Being in high altitude, we recognise the inevitable challenges this circuit brings. It’s about finding performance without compromising reliability. This weekend, we had performance, qualifying was very good for many of the different Renault-powered cars. However, the balance between performance and reliability was not good. Max Verstappen’s win confirms the engine’s potential and I want to congratulate him and his team for this great race. I’d also like to congratulate Lewis Hamilton who entered our sport’s history today. As a team, we need to stay motivated for the last two races and focus on our objectives.”