Renault rules out bid to lure Red Bull F1 design chief Adrian Newey
Renault has dismissed suggestions it is trying to lure Adrian Newey away from Red Bull, despite recent speculation that the Formula 1 manufacturer is interested in the design chief
Newey still has another year to run on his contract as Red Bull's chief technical officer, but rumours emerged around the time of last month's Monaco Grand Prix that Renault chiefs were considering an attempt to poach him.
But Renault F1's managing director Cyril Abiteboul insisted his team was content with its current technical line-up, and did not think Newey will do anything but commit for longer to staying where he is.
When asked by Autosport if Renault was really interested in Newey, Abiteboul replied: "No."
He added: "Massive respect to Adrian for what he's done and keeps doing.
"I don't feel like he's going to be contractless, I rather feel like he's extremely committed to Red Bull and Aston Martin on a number of projects, on the one hand.
"On the other hand, we've got a strong, established structure I fully trust. Bob [Bell], Marcin Budkowski who joined us and is taking up the global management of Enstone, Nick Chester, Rob White on Enstone operations.
"That's it, I think we've got the right structure to do the job. Now, we need to make it work."
Renault has undergone a massive restructuring in the past three years in the wake of the car manufacturer's return to F1 as a works team.
Staff levels have increased from less than 475 to around 650, and Abiteboul said getting that structure working efficiently was key to helping the team make progress on track.
"It's a lot of work to organise these recruitments - it's not just financial means," he said.
"You have to take care of it, identify where needs are, post advertisements, hire people, choose them, integrate them, make sure the group keeps working well together. It's a huge task.
"I often explain that it's part of what we have to do now, besides everything we have to do on track, as it's not just a phrase, it's reality.
"We spend a lot of time building the team at the moment. It was Bob Bell's goal in particular, he was somewhat away from the day-to-day work, from chassis design, which really is Nick Chester's responsibility.
"In late 2018, we'll reach the end of that initial three-year plan from '16 to '18. We'll be in line with our goals building the team and our sporting goals.
"I'm perfectly aware that we're still a second off the top teams' pace.
"The question we need to ask is, 'what's the plan for the next three years, from 2019 to '21, so that in '21 we're on target to fight for the championship?'"
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