Renault engine among F1's best - Prost

Alain Prost believes Renault have overcome their sticky start to the 2019 season, and rates the French marque's engine as among the best on the grid. Renault brought an upgraded engine to the French Grand Prix, helping Daniel Ricciardo qualify in the top eight.

Reliability issues hampered Renault in the early stages of the season, but they secured a first double points finish of 2019 in Canada, suggesting a turnaround and allowing the team to return to targeting fourth place.

Another double score would have been secured at Paul Ricard, but Ricciardo was bumped from the top 10 post-race for exceeding track limits in a frantic last-lap battle between four cars.

With Austria's power-hungry Red Bull Ring posing the challenge this weekend, Prost says Renault need not fear such venues as they might have previously.

"The beginning of the season was difficult," Prost told Le Figaro.

"But we always recognised that there were problems. We had problems with understanding what was happening with the tyres, and we also did not have reliability with the engine.

"It was an unpleasant surprise. This was a negative point, but also a positive because we managed to recover quickly.

"Now we can safely say that we have one of the best engines in Formula 1. Nevertheless, we still need to improve to be able to compete with Ferrari.

Renault's engine customers McLaren look like being their stiffest competition in the race for fourth place, but Prost sees no reason why third-placed Red Bull cannot be counted among their regular rivals too.

"We may be able to beat Red Bull here and there, but it's simply impossible to catch up with Mercedes and Ferrari this season.

"If the gap today is a second, then we need to reduce it to half a second by the end of the season."

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