Renault to bring updated rear wing to Spain

All teams are expected to bring upgrades for the first European race of the season at Barcelona, with Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda suggesting the F1 title battle faces a total reset as a result.

Renault’s latest package comes after it introduced an upgrade, which included a new front wing, last time out in Russia in a bid to cure its race pace problems.

Nico Hulkenberg scored points with eighth and declared the team had made “a good step” with its performance in races, even if there remained work to do.

Renault plans to bring updates to the chassis consistently throughout the season, with the rear wing and bargeboards the latest new additions to the car.

“We’ve been qualifying well so far this season, then Sochi showed a useful improvement to our race pace,” said Renault technical chief Nick Chester.

“We’ve still got a few more upgrades on the aerodynamic package for Spain, so we’re reasonably positive. We have new barge boards and an updated rear wing.

“The upgrades we used in Sochi worked as expected so we made a useful step in our race pace whilst maintaining qualifying pace. There’s still more to do in this area, but we’re heading in the right direction.

“We’re in the midfield fight where we expected to be, but it’s a very close battle here so we need to ensure we seize every advantage possible from the car and how we use it.”

Reserve Sergey Sirotkin will take part in first practice for the second successive race weekend, taking over Jolyon Palmer’s car.

The Russian failed to set a lap time in FP1 in Sochi because of a gearbox problem.

“Sergey’s issue in Sochi was related to a gearbox shift valve and it was a big shame for him to get so little running,” said Chester.

“He’s in Jo’s car for FP1 and we expect he’ll do a good job.”