Current Alpine F1 (Formerly Renault)

Lotus Renault GP

FIA Entry: Renault F1
Car 9: Nick Heidfeld
Car 10: Vitaly Petrov
Engine: Renault V8
Team Principal: Eric Boullier
Technical Director: James Allison
Race Engineer Car 9: Simon Rennie
Race Engineer Car 10: Ayao Komatsu

Stats at end 2010

First Entered 1977
Races Entered 285
Race Wins 35
Pole Positions 51
Fastest Laps 31
Driver World Championships 2
Constructor World Championships 2

Team History

Renault first entered F1 as a constructor in 1977 at the British Grand Prix. At the height of the “garagiste” and Cosworth engines Renault entered a single car, driven by Jean-Pierre Jabouille, powered by a 1.5 litre turbo charged engine. Renault’s experiment with turbo charging probably changed F1 more than any other single event in the sport’s history.

Jabouille won Renault's first Grand Prix in 1979 in France and, up until their withdrawal as a constructor from the sport in 1985; Renault won 15 Grands Prix. They continued in F1 as an engine manufacturer until in 2002 they returned as a constructor having acquired the Benetton (formerly Toleman) team in 2000.

The “new” Renault Team

For 2002 Renault partnered Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button together and the team managed 4th place in the Constructors Championship. Button was dropped for 2003 in favour of the team’s test driver, Fernando Alonso. Alonso repaid the team’s faith by winning the Hungarian Grand Prix, the first win for a Renault car since 1983.

Jarno Trulli won the Monaco Grand Prix in 2004 but was replaced by Jacques Villeneuve before the end of the season as he and the team principal, Flavio Briatore, fell out amid claims of favouritism toward Alonso.

The Championship Years

Giancarlo Fisichella was brought in to replace Trulli for 2005 and duly won the first race in Australia. Alonso won the next 3 and a total of 7 in the season to win the Drivers World Championship and give Renault the Constructors’ Title they had long waited for; breaking Michael Schumacher 5 year run of driver's titles and and Ferrari's 6 year long strangle hold on the constructors title.

In 2006 the same pattern repeated, Fisichella took a single victory, Alonso 7 along with both the Drivers Championship and the Constructors Title.

Post Alonso (part 1)

Alonso’s departure to McLaren in 2007, replaced by rookie Heikki Kovalainen, left the team without a star driver to build around and the team struggled. Kovalainen outscored his more experienced team mate but a highest finish of 2nd in Japan was the best result on the track. The team finished 3rd in the Constructors Championship but as McLaren were disqualified from the championship in 2007 the result flatters to deceive.

After falling out with McLaren Alonso returned to Renault for 2008. Rebuilding around him, the car slowly improved and Alonso won races in Singapore and Japan. It later transpired that Alonso’s team mate in 2008, Nelson Piquet jnr, had deliberately crashed during the Singapore race with the collusion of team principal Briatore and Technical Director, Pat Symonds. This emerged in 2009 after Piquet was dropped by the team for Roman Grosjean resulting in Briatore and Symonds being banned from the sport and Renault being given a 2 years suspended ban.

2009 was a lean year for Renault. Alonso managed pole in Hungary but otherwise a single 3rd place in Singapore was the best placing the team could muster. The resulting bad publicity surrounding the race fixing allegations resulted in many of Renault’s major sponsors withdrawing finance from the team and put into question Renault’s continuing presence as an F1 team.

Post Alonso (part 2)

Alonso left for Ferrari in 2010 and Robert Kubica took his place, partnered by Russia’s first F1 driver Vitaly Petrov. At this time Renault sold a 75% share of the team to Luxembourg based venture capital company Genii. Renault continued to provide technical support and engines to the team. Kubica managed some podium places through the season whilst Petrov took some time to acclimatise to F1 with a best finish of 5th in Hungary, matching Renault’s finish in the Constructor’s Championship.

2011

For 2011 Renault sold it’s remaining 25% share to Lotus cars resulting in a change of team name to Lotus Renault GP causing a legal battle with Team Lotus as to who had the rights to use the name Lotus in F1. Renault will also race under a British licence this season leaving F1 without a French team for the first time since 1975.

Renault planned to retain the same driver line up but Kubica crashed in a rally car prior to pre-season testing and has been replaced by former team mate Nick Heidfeld. They will use the R31 chassis.
 
I think the Lotus name will be binned again I hate to say "Told you so " to Dani Bahar and Genii Capital after they were fighting Team Lotus for the name rights:oops:

:whistle:

I guess we will see the yellow and black livery soon and get rid of Pastor as well

I will be glad that Renault are staying in F1 and hope they simply start getting the team together and start trouncing Red Bull

given the Red Bull situation then would it be inconceivable that Force India may get Renault engines seeing they were supposedly discussed a stake in the team with Renault as well
 
apparently Perez is considered with a straight swap with Maldonado and likely they will retain Grosjean not just because he is French but because he actually can race and bring the car home:thinking:

Romain thinks he can get on the podium again at Monza:1st::2nd::3rd:
 
Renault Mercedes shirley? ;)

Mercedes should not supply engines to Renault as long as Renault is an engine OEM. My opinion anyway.

I think the cleanest way here (given red Bull's commitment from Renault as the Renault lead team) is Red Bull moves to Mercedes for 2016, Toro Rosso sees out its Renault contract (i.e. uses Renault engines next year), and Lotus (renamed Renault) switches to Renault.
 
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There apparently was an agreement for the Lotus name to be used on team Enstone until 2017

Lotus F1 cut sponsorship ties with Group Lotus

Daimler and Renault-Nissan Announce Global Partnership - Car News

Mercedes and Renault team up | Autocar

Mercedes will use Renault engines

Unravelling the Red Bull-Mercedes-Renault-Lotus knot


Mercedes and Renault have a global partnership so neither will upset the other

Toto has come out and said Red Bull and Renault must sort out their differences before they get involved. Christian Horner has stated that Red Bull have a contract where they are the de facto Renault team despite the noises they are making.

I would think team Enstone will use Merc engines for one more season until the mess with Red Bull and Renault are sorted .

The team might be still labelled Lotus Renault next season but use a Merc engine similar to Sauber who entered as BMW Sauber but had a Ferrari engine in 2010
 
Personally, I don't get Renault. In the 1980s they got a bit bored of F1 as a team, provided good engines to Lotus, then buggered off...

Then they had the all conquering RS powerplants in the '90s, but got a bit bored of winning everything and buggered off again, albeit leaving their Meccachrome tuning plant running, releasing rubbishy engines.

Then they returned with Benetton, and produced the worst engine F1 had ever seen (or at least since the Life W12 anyways); they then bought the Benetton team, ran it, and won 2 championships - although they always had the air of "doing things on the cheap".

In 2010, they decided that F1 was too expensive, but that they would continue to produce engines (and committed to the new engine formula). However, they got Nissan to pour money at them through the Red Bull engine range...

Now they've decided that F1 is affordable again, even though it's probably more expensive than it was in 2010, and Renault are still a shitty little French car maker!
 
Currently Lotus have sponsorship from PDVSA but Grosjean is backed by French petroleum Total

Now Elf have traditional being associated with Renault
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teabagyokel Button's driven some cars with seriously duff engines

Benetton Renault 2001 with the infamous 111 degree engine which was causing vibrational issues and failing a lot

Honda Earth Car 2007 seriously awful in every sense

Honda Earth car 2008 slightly better than 2007's but way down on power as a result of the engine freeze
 
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