Renault has suffered a series of failures in recent races, with Renault-powered Toro Rosso duo Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley taking grid penalties for this weekend's race in Brazil.

As a result, Renault made the call to turn down its engines in a bid to reduce the chances of further failures during the race at Interlagos.

The works Renaults of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz finished 10th and 11th, a lap down, while Renault-powered Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fifth and sixth.

Gasly was 12th while Hartley retired with an oil consumption issue.

"We knew we were in a position where we had to sacrifice a bit of performance in order to increase the reliability," Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.

"It's not a nice situation to be in. Everything was settled after the first lap. It was a bit of a savourless race for us and actually it's a bit bitter because we know there is much more potential.

"We just need to make sure it doesn't happen again and that we don't have to choose between performance and reliability. If we want to race in F1, we need both."

Abiteboul said Renault would decide in the coming days whether it would need to keep the engines turned down for the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Renault is only two points ahead of Haas in seventh place in the constructors' championship, with Toro Rosso four clear in sixth.

"We have to think about [what to do in] Abu Dhabi," said Abiteboul. "On one hand, we would like and could afford to be aggressive, because if you're not aggressive at the last race, when are you going to be?

"At the same time, we know Haas are very close in the championship so we need to take a balanced approach. That will be the focus of the next couple of days."