Renault Formula 1 team principal Cy꧂ril Abiteboul concedes hi🦩s side has “fallen short” of its “high expectations” at the opening two rounds of the 2019 season.

The French manufacturer is looking to build on its fourth place finish in the construc✨tors’ championship but currently sits seventh following a disappointing start to the new campaig꧋n.

Nico Hulkenberg turned in a strong drive to score points at the Melbourne season-opener, b⛎efore Renault suffered a double retirement at the Bahrain Grand Prix with both of its cars occupying a place insidꦐe the top ten.

“The start of th✤e 2019 season has fallen short of our high expectations,” Abiteboul said.

“Our overall competitiveness is good enough for our drivers to🔯 be racing in the top 10 and closer to the top teams than last year, but we have suffer🐻ed from reliability issues.

“We mo♓v༺e onto China with caution, but also with a resolution to really get the season going.”

Renau🎐lt will bring a new bodywork, braking and suspension updates in its bid to pull of♚f a “well-executed weekend” in China.

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

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

“These things do take time, but it’s good ꧑to 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 o🌄ver the race 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 lot 🅺more to come.”

Hulkenberg said he is looking to take the positives from his own performance in Bahra⛎in, having charged from the back of the grid to s🉐ixth prior to his retirement.

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

“Disappointment can h🌠appen in racing, but we move on as a team, learn from what happened and do everything possible to prevent 𝐆it from happening again.

“We showed we had good race pace. There 🍷was a lot of overtaking, which 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 h꧅ead into China knowing that if we string together a decent enough weekend, we’re more than capable of leading the midfield.”