Abiteboul 'convinced' Sainz will catch up

May 23 - Cyril Abiteboul says he is happy with the progress at the Renault works team.

"There are ups and downs, but in general for the moment we are in line with our plan," the team boss told El Confidencial newspaper.

"We know that sometimes we sound too conservative and corporate, but every professional in formula one knows that you do not win in a day. We are fighting against organisations that have almost thirty or forty per cent more people than us."

As for the drivers, Abiteboul is clearly happy with Nico Hulkenberg but also Carlos Sainz, despite the Spaniard's struggle to get up to speed.

"Jolyon Palmer is a person I like a lot, but he was not at the necessary level," he said.

"Carlos has been a turning point in the team. He had a good start but he is not at the level he would like.

"He accepts that he has to catch up with Nico, but quantifies it in three tenths.

"He says 'Ok, it's three tenths, but it's not the end of the world or something that cannot be overcome. So let's start tenth by tenth'," Abiteboul said.

"We are totally supporting him and I am absolutely convinced that he will overcome this deficit if he continues with the same approach."

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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