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Renault Formula 1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul says Jack Aitken deserves to continue receiving the manufacturer's backing despite missing out on the GP3 title in 2017.

Aitken completed his second year in the third-tier category last season and finished second overall with one race win, behind ART Grand Prix team-mate George Russell.

The pair will also race together at the junior single-seater team's Formula 2 outfit in 2018.

Abiteboul explained that Aitken had impressed the French manufacturer sufficiently to retain its support for a third season.

"Frankly, we are not robots so when I talk about the targets, the fact [is] that every single driver in the Academy has targets and if he hits the targets then he is promoted to the next level and we will continue to support [them]," Abiteboul told Autosport at the unveiling of the 2018 class of the Renault Sport Academy.

"But we also look at the circumstances, we also look what happened [in] racing incidents - it's not a perfect science.

"So, despite the fact he had not reached the target of being champion, he deserved to continue [with Renault] and it was in everyone's interest to continue together.

"We are also putting a little bit of emotion into the programme."

By graduating to F2 for 2018, Aitken is the highest-placed RSA member.

"We deeply believe in Jack," Abiteboul added.

"He's in his third year [with the RSA], if we are not believing in Jack we would not have invested what we have and I'm not necessarily talking about the financial numbers.

"We think that he could even have won GP3 last year, but despite the fact he didn't we had reason to continue the journey together and we are very happy that we are doing that.

"F2 will be another year where it's going to be competitive it will be interesting to see what he is capable of doing, in particular his year one."

Aitken drove a 2012 Lotus-built Renault F1 car last September as a reward for his 2017 GP3 campaign.

The 22-year-old is hopeful of more F1 opportunities in 2018, although none have been confirmed at this stage.

"There will be something this year," Aitken said. "Whether it's less or more, in what car, is not yet decided.

"Hopefully if I deliver the results then we can have some good opportunities."