Renault's F1 engine development token spend irrelevant
Cyril Abiteboul believes Renault's limited use of Formula 1 engine tokens during pre-season will still translate into performance and therefore prove there is no connection between the two
Renault used just seven of its allocated 32 development tokens over the winter compared the 23 used by Ferrari, which was the biggest spender.
Renault struggled for performance last season and waited until the penultimate race to spend 11 of its 12 tokens only for Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo to say the power unit was no better.
Abiteboul says Renault intends to dip into its remaining token allocation during the rest of the season but he insists it is not something to focus on.
"This is a demonstration that we have used little tokens but I hope the fact we have made a substantial step in terms of performance will be actual evidence that there is no connection between token use and performance," he said.
"You can use a lot of tokens and bring absolutely nothing in terms of laptime, which is maybe something we did last year.
"There is a plan to use more tokens during the course of the season.
"Hopefully it will happen, both for the benefit of the Renault works team and also Red Bull."
The token system is set to be abolished from next season to open up development and it is something Abiteboul is in favour of.
"The whole debate of tokens should go away and we should focus on performance," he said.
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