Renault defends "aggressive" approach amid Budkowski row

The French car manufacturer has come under fire from other teams after it emerged that it had pulled off a major coup in getting hold of Budkowski – who has privileged knowledge of what rivals are up to through his old job with the governing body.

Although drawing short of confirming Budkowski’s signing, Abiteboul has made it clear that his outfit needs to go on the offensive to grab the staff it needs if it wants be world champion over the next few years.

“We want to be one of the top teams by 2020,” Abiteboul told Sky. “It is at one time far away, but given we know what needs to be done, if you look at the one-second – 1.5-second gap between the midfield and the top teams, it is a big jump.

“And that is why we need to be aggressive in what we do to be there by 2020.”

He added: “In this sport you are not here to make friends. Obviously there are ways to do things, and anything we do in terms of recruitment – not necessarily Marcin – we need to grow, Enstone needs badly to grow.

“When we took the place it was 475 people, it is now 620 people. There is no secret that those people need to come from somewhere, and we have to go chasing from some of the other teams.”

But despite the controversy over Budkowski’s signing, Abiteboul insists his team will not do anything that could breach the rules nor rival teams’ IP rights.

“Renault has a very clear track record of being extremely fair and loyal,” added Abiteboul. “So whatever we will do, we will make sure that it is done in a very loyal way and a very fair way to our competitors.”