Chester thinks Renault have been "lucky" with investments

Nick Chester believes that Renault have been relatively lucky with investments in recent years.

Renault took over from the Lotus F1 team back in 2015 and had to rebuild after years out of the sport.

Truthfully, the French outfit are still rebuilding now to climb up to back where they used to be.

"Over the last two to three years since Renault took ownership of the team, we have pumped an awful lot of money into capital investment," Chester told PlanetF1.

"You can see that all around the factory. We have got a paint facility we didn't used to have, and we have buildings for machining chassis and machining centres.

"There has been loads of investments, I think we have been quite lucky."

Chester admitted that the side does not have an unlimited budget to buy the success they crave in the sport.

"I don't think there is ever a blank cheque, unfortunately," Chester said.

"You have to justify what you want to do, show the value you're going to get from how you want to expand.

"And you have to show that you have been credible along the journey, which I think we are doing now." 

Renault are currently sitting comfortably in P4 in the Constructors' Championship, 19 points ahead of Haas, their nearest rivals.

Their driver Nico Hulkenberg is leading the 'B' championship - however, the gap between Renault and the top three is more than 100 points.

"They are looking with us at what we need to do to make the next big step," Chester added.

"It is just that you can only build up to a certain rate."