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Renault says it is aiming for a minimum of five wins in 2014 - two more than last year - and thinks it will have halved the deficit to Mercedes by the opener in Australia.

Last year Daniel Ricciardo claimed three victories for Renault-powered Red Bull when Mercedes slipped up, though the French manufacturer remained a distant second in the pecking order all year. As it stands Renault will only supply Red Bull and Toro Rosso this year, with Lotus switching to Mercedes power and Caterham highly unlikely to return to the grid.

Renault managing director Cyril Abiteboul is confident the work it has done over winter will set it in good stead come March 15 - and says Mercedes will not start the year with its 2015 spec engine.

"We estimate that our gap to Mercedes at the end of the 2014 season was about 60bhp," Abiteboul told Canal+. "We hope to close this gap by half at the [season-opening Australian Grand Prix] in Melbourne. Unlike Mercedes, we will start the 2015 season with the 2015 version of our engine. To date, we have used about two-thirds of allowed [32] tokens to change our engine this year. My goal is to claim at least five wins this season."

Abiteboul also threw his support behind the growing push for 1000bhp engines in 2017, something which is being discussed by team bosses, but only if costs can be controlled.

"Renault will not object to the idea of Bernie Ecclestone, to make engines more powerful, and to make more sound, [so long as] costs remain under control. The idea is attractive, but it seems that it is already too late for 2016. 2017, however, is ideal timing."

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