Renault Formula 1 team principal Cyril Abiteboul concedes his side has “fallen short” of its “high expectations” at the opening two rounds of the 20🉐19 season.

The French manufacturer is looking to♑ build on its fourth place finish in the constructors’ champ🌠ionship but currently sits seventh following a disappointing start to the new campaign.

Nico Hulkenberg turned in a strong🌳 drive to score points at the M🙈elbourne season-opener, before Renault suffered a double retirement at the Bahrain Grand Prix with both of its cars occupying a place inside the top ten.

“The start of the 20꧂19 💙season has fallen short of our high expectations,” Abiteboul said.

“Our𒆙 overall competitiveness is good enough for our drivers to be racing in the top 10 and closer to the top teams than last year, b🌌ut we have suffered from reliability issues.

“We move onto China with caution, but also with a resolutiܫon to really get the season going.”

Renault will bring a new bodywork, braking and 📖suspension updates in its bid to pull off a “well-executed we♕ekend” in China.

New signing Daniel Ricciardo, who admitted he has been overdriving his RS19 in an attempt to get up to speed with his new environment, feels Renault has far more potential to u🎃nleash from its 2019 package.

“I’m certainly getting there 🐬in terms of extracting the maximum and getting more comfortable,” Ricciardo explained.

“These things do take time, but it’s good to iron out these details going forward. We’ll 🔯get there soon and sure enough and I’m confident we’re heading in the right direction.

“We showed༺ signs of that over the r⛎ace weekend, going from a struggle on Friday, followed by an improvement on Saturday to being in and amongst it on Sunday.

“The car clearly has pace, but for me, it’s about finding all of it. I feel there’s a lo✨t more to come.”

Hulkenberg said he is looking to take the positives from his own performance ♓in Bahrain, having charged from the b🌺ack of the grid to sixth prior to his retirement.

“I would like to take the ♌positives from Bahrain,” he added.

“Disappointment can happen in racing, but we move on ꩲas a team, learn from what happened and do everything possible 🌳to prevent it from happening again.

“We showed we had good race pace. There was a lot of overtaking, whiꦡch we were able to hold our own in and we executed a slick two-stop, together with good pit-stops from the crew.

“We must build on these positives and head into China knowing that if we string tog🍌ether a decent enough weekend, we’re more than capable of leading the midfield.”