Renault may introduce its version of the F-duct in the next race at the Hockenheimring.

But team principal Eric Boullier admitted it is more likely to appear for the first time at Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Speaking on the Renault F1 podcast he said:

The second part of the season will be crucial to see where exactly our pace is and if we can get the best of our car to get some more pace and more podiums. You always have some inertia, when you have an upgrade on the car the decision to do it and to manufacturer it was done two weeks or maybe three races before. So we still have some good developments coming for the next two, three or four races. We obviously have some specific tracks like Singapore, Monza or Budapest where we will have a special aerodynamics package. But we still have some good upgrades including an F-duct coming so that is quite promising for the end of the season. Actually I can’t wait to have all this on the car! [Its introduction will be] depending on the production, because now we have validated a good package, and depending on the schedule because Budapest is a high-downforce track so we don’t need to have it there. Maybe we will get it before but very likely right after.

Eric Boullier

Boullier added he was pleased to re-sign Robert Kubica for another two years and believes it is a vote of confidence in the team by his driver:

That was very good news before the Grand Prix because we had very good discussions with him. First of all I’m happy for the team, it’s a great mark of confidence towards the team that Robert is signing a two year deal with us. With all respect for the other teams he is a very highly-ranked driver and a lot of prestigious names in the paddock were chasing him or were supposed to be chasing him. It’s good for our project to have Robert committing for two years because it means we have some credibility in his eyes and it means our team has done a good job but we are supposed to do a better job in future.

Eric Boullier

Boullier also praised the efforts of Vitaly Petrov, calling him the best rookie in F1 this year, while urging the Russian driver to improve his consistency:

His future in his hands. We have not been disappointed by him, he clearly is the best rookie in the paddock. He did a very good performance and an amazing job sometimes. Very frankly he is lacking some consistency to get the points he deserves and we definitely need to have both cars scoring points. So that obviously creates some rumours around him and his race seat but we are totally committed to him, we are happy to have him on board and we will do everything we can to help him make the final step to where he wants to be.

Eric Boullier