F1: Ricciardo inspired by Hamilton to do great things at Renault

Renault Sport Racing managing director Cyril Abiteboul told reporters that Ricciardo could be the spark needed to ignite the team on track.

Hand on heart, and kitted out in new black and yellow overalls, Daniel Ricciardo says it feels right to be with Renault -- even if he has yet to develop a Frenchman's taste for frogs' legs and snails.

The smiling Australian, a seven times race winner with Red Bull, is preparing for a new chapter in his Formula One career at a team eager to get back to the top after returning as constructors in 2016.

His decision was not an easy one, with plenty of nights spent agonising before he made his mind up on a flight from London to Los Angeles last August, but he has no doubts now about the move.

"Even if I really didn’t feel it, I’d probably try and make up something that it did feel right. But, hand on heart, it does feel right," Ricciardo told reporters ahead of the launch of his team's new car on Tuesday.

"The process of deciding what to do was stressful but once I’d literally made the call, I was instantly de-stressed and that hasn’t changed."

The Australian's relaxed and bubbly personality, and laughing manner, have already put a spring in the step of his new teammates.

Ricciardo had the assembled factory workforce eating out of his hand as he addressed them on Monday night, assuring them he was "stoked" and "it all feels real now in the suit.

"I definitely feel part of the team," he declared.

"From the few I have met already, you're not bad. I think we can become friends."

Renault Sport Racing managing director Cyril Abiteboul told reporters that Ricciardo could be the spark needed to ignite the team on track.

"It’s been a huge boost, a huge motivation," he said of the Australian's arrival alongside German Nico Hulkenberg.

"We’ve put a lot of the right ingredients in three years in terms of people, resources, investment but at some point you need something that is igniting the mixture.

"And that is the sort of thing I’d like to see coming from Daniel."

Ricciardo said his dream was to do at Renault, world champions in 2005 and 2006, what five times world champion Lewis Hamilton has achieved with Mercedes after his well-timed move from McLaren.

"There’s definitely part of that which inspires me. If I was able to do that here I wouldn’t complain," he said.

Other aspects of working for a French team were more of an acquired taste.

"I did eat snails and frogs' legs and pigs' feet the other day. That was my induction into being French," he revealed with a grin, recalling a trip to Paris with food served up by a leading chef.

"Knowing they were things I wouldn’t (normally) eat kind of put me off. So the frogs' legs, I didn’t know what they were. And when I ate them I was like ‘ah, it’s kind of chicken or fish’. So it wasn’t that bad.

"Then when he told me it was frogs' legs..."

Renault F1 hoping for big step up on the engine side

Renault aim to close the gap to Formula One's top three teams this season, and keep the smile on new recruit Daniel Ricciardo's face, after seeing a big step up in engine performance.

Renault Sport Racing Managing director Cyril Abiteboul said ahead of the unveiling of the 2019 car on Tuesday that the team were on the rise and needed to put the hard years of rebuilding behind them.

If long-term targets remained unchanged -- podiums next year, and wins in 2021 before a championship challenge -- there was quiet confidence at the former champions' expanded Enstone factory.

Renault finished fourth last year, still a long way behind reigning champions Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, but with their engines winning four races in the back of the latter team's cars.

Abiteboul said progress on the engine over the European winter had been 'substantial'.

"It (the step up in performance) is the biggest we have ever done since the V6 was introduced (in 2014)," the Frenchman told reporters.

"It's the most productive winter we have ever had in terms of engine performance."

Renault and Red Bull split at the end of last year, leaving the French manufacturer with just two teams -- their factory outfit and McLaren -- while their former customers have switched to Honda.

Abiteboul said one benefit of that was Renault could now 'fully control our communication' after years of public criticism from Red Bull about a lack of performance and reliability.

"On the engine side, yes we've had some issues and one issue is too many," he said. "We are aiming for zero DNFs (non finishes) related to either the chassis or the engine. We have no reason to believe its impossible at this stage.

"We will have to balance performance and reliability, but it's a game everyone is playing in modern Formula One," Abiteboul added.

Renault have grown in numbers and spent heavily on equipment, bringing in new resources including two Breton 1500 matrix dynamic machine tools at around $1 million each within the last year.

Staff levels at Enstone have reached 750, including contractors, with a further 450 in France working on power units at Viry-Chatillon.

"With the new facility, we have more in-house production capacity which allows us to be more time efficient. And therefore being able to react quicker than before," Abiteboul said.

"We have confidence that we have a good platform."

Retired four times world champion and team special advisor Alain Prost, addressing staff before the launch, said he was impressed by the changes and hoped to see Ricciardo or German team mate Nico Hulkenberg on the podium this year.

"We are now becoming a big team," the Frenchman said.

"We know what we want to do and where we are going."