Red Bull’s Adrian Newey is confident that the new Renault engine for the formula 1 season I making another step forward after seeing the forecast figures.

After a difficult 2015 year, the Renault made a big step forward, and now Newey has seen the numbers for the new 2017 engine. He hopes that his team can pose an even greater danger for reigning champions Mercedes.

“Renault has worked very hard this winter”, Newey commented “I know their numbers for this year, and it is good progress. Naturally this applies for our chassis too. However we still don’t know what our rivals are doing”,

2015 left a blemish on Renault’s engine developers’ reputation. The engine clearly fell behind to Mercedes and Ferrari. “Renault have now definitely taken a very good direction,” explains Newey, “two years ago they made no progress over the winter. We actually found they were working in the wrong direction when comparing to the first year of hybrids.”

“In the past year they have made good progress during the season. Still behind Mercedes and Ferrari, but over the winter, the gap has become rather less than larger.” Newey explains that for the season 2017 the aerodynamics are the biggest rule change, that the engines are still an important role. “Power is getting more important because we have so much grip.”

Newey clarifies that the new rules are an opportunity. “I like rule changes, because it then comes to understanding possible impact of these changes better than your opponents. Sometimes you can find gaps in the rules and regulations”.