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Renault's performance at the Italian Grand Prix will demonstrate their progress across the course of the 2014 season, according to head of track operations Remi Taffin.
Renault endured a troublesome start to 2014's new era of technical regulations but has won the most recent two races courtesy of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
While Taffin accepts that Renault's teams may still struggle at Monza this weekend, he is nonetheless encouraged by the development rate of the French engine supplier.
"It’s good to be back at Monza, a real test of where we are versus the competition and how far we have come since the start of the year," he said.
"The final timesheets only give a small glimpse of the bigger picture today. The long run pace on the Red Bull cars is good and on a par with the overall performance we demonstrated at the last race in Belgium. We started off with the same maps as Spa and although there are some refinements to make tonight, we confirmed the direction is still correct and, importantly, that the straight line speed performance is still there.
"Overall things have gone well and we have gathered even more information on the Power Unit in conjunction with the low aero downforce configuration.
"The new software evolutions introduced this weekend have also given us a step forward in energy management and power optimisation. There have been a couple of minor issues, but that is mainly due to the age of the parts we are running at this point in the season. With this in mind, everything should be better tomorrow when we update the parts.
"We know that Monza places an overarching emphasis on top speed, and we may struggle over the one lap pace, but we are not that far off and seem to be in a similar position as Spa. We’ve got to maximize the opportunities we have and be ready to seize any that come our way in qualifying and the race on Sunday"
