Renault says Red Bull criticism is hurting its confidence in F1

Since returning to Renault last September, Abiteboul has discovered a very different company to the one he departed after 11 years to become Caterham team principal in 2012.

Four years of championship dominance for the Red Bull-Renault partnership has been followed by 18 months of pain and pressure since the introduction of the new engine formula.

That has resulted in constant criticism from the likes of Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko, which Abiteboul maintains has had a negative impact on Renault's attempts to resolve issues.

"When you are in a position that is not satisfying and is not working you obviously have a duty to change things," Abiteboul told AUTOSPORT.

"What I think was needed more than anything was to again build confidence in ourselves.

"I compare the situation to 2005 when we designed and built one engine which allowed us to win the championship.

"I look at the confidence we had back then to do that sort of thing, to shortcut all the processes in terms of validation.

"Now, each time we try and speed things up we immediately get sacked on track because of various issues. There's a vicious circle we need to invert.

"We can only do that if we win small battles that will again build the confidence in ourselves, in individuals and in the people in our infrastructure.

"That is one of the difficulties we have with our relationship with Red Bull.

"When you are not one single team it is more difficult to again build up the confidence in a group than when you are completely integrated.

"That's one of the things we are working on. We are trying to get Red Bull to support us rather than bash us publicly."

MOVING ON FROM EARLY-SEASON CRITICISM

Abiteboul is hopeful a corner has now been turned in the relationship.

"They know what it takes to build confidence within an organisation," he said.

"That's something they themselves had to do in order to build the success they had over many years.

"We have had an opportunity to exchange on this and we are trying to move away from that.

"In my opinion this is the biggest challenge I have had to deal with, to rebuild the confidence in Renault Sport F1."

He admits confidence will only come if Renault builds a more reliable and powerful engine.

"It's a Catch 22, that's why at some point in time you have to stop running after a train that has already gone and to wait for the next train," assessed Abiteboul.

"That's why I said when I returned to Renault Sport last year it wouldn't take one winter to catch up to Mercedes.

"It's an obvious situation, but when I said that to Red Bull Racing it was not something they liked to hear.

"They've tried to induce us to work quicker, but if anything it has aggravated a situation that was very raw.

"We need to trust and listen to each other, rather than trying to change the natural course of things."