Renault: No excuses for poor reliability after Silverstone issues

Hulkenberg enjoyed his strongest performance of the year at Silverstone, but suffered an ERS issue in the late stages due to a holed exhaust.

The subsequent loss of power helped Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo to sweep past him and Hulkenberg went on to finish in sixth.

"In the last couple of laps I lost some power and deployment," Hulkenberg said. "Not sure what happened, but sure we lost some straightline speed.

"It was easier for Daniel to overtake me, otherwise perhaps I could have kept him behind me. But it is what it is, I think we should be happy with what we've got. The team did a very good job all weekend long."

After teammate Jolyon Palmer retired on the formation lap, Abiteboul said Renault's focus must be on sorting its reliability issues as soon as possible.

"We're still unhappy with reliability because if you look at it, the two cars have been hurt today. We know this our weakness, and we need to get that right," he told Motorsport.com.

"Frankly there is absolutely no reason to have to suffer to that extent, given where we are now in our programme. That has to be the focus, performance is pointing in the direction that we want, so our focus is reliability."

Abiteboul celebrated the team's strongest weekend so far, but reckoned Hulkenberg could have kept Ricciardo behind without the problem.

"A strong race, no mistakes, perfect execution, and a good strategy," he said. "And quite a moment at the end when we thought we had some form of exhaust leak, that caused the loss of energy recovery, which is the reason why we were absolutely unable to contain the attack of Ricciardo.

"I believe without that we would have been able to hold him, but the objective at this point in the last laps was to bring the car back home, and we need to understand the details of that small leak, which could have had a big effect with more laps to go."

Renault introduced a new floor which the team said will be the "triggering event" to many more car updates, and Hulkenberg is hoping the developments translate into a stronger second half of the season.

"This was an important thing for us to bring this floor, and for it to deliver a big impact," the German said. "I know there are more things coming, even already for Budapest.

"I think the first half was decent, that was always my expectation, to be in the points now and then, but still a little bit behind the main midfield.

"I very much hope that at this rate of progression we can have a stronger second half, and battle the likes of Force India, Haas and Williams more, and take points off them."