F1 News
Renault bracing themselves for Ricciardo and Ocon rivalry
- Tom Mason
Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul has admitted that he's preparing himself to cope with the relationship between next year's two drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon. The Mercedes reserve driver, Ocon will return next year to continue his F1 career, replacing Nico Hulkenberg.
The combination of Ricciardo and Ocon should an interesting one with the two being at different times of their careers but Abiteboul knows it's not going to plain sailing.
"[Esteban] will want to beat Daniel," Abiteboul said.
"And I know that we will have some challenges from a driver management perspective on the pit wall to manage that.
"But that’s also a nice problem to have."
Renault was looking at improving the team's dynamic when they replace the experienced Hulkenberg with Ocon.
"The one thing that I want is to have a team of people who are 'starving'," said Abiteboul.
"We are are desperate for [people] happy to be in the sport and are desperate for success.
"The problem sometimes in Formula 1 is you have people doing very long careers, and at the end, they are just a bit [there] to be in Formula 1 and almost to win becomes secondary."