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'd stick to Team Enstone if you want consistency, Renault are sure to dip in and out of F1. After all, why change the habit of a lifetime!
 
Now someone be a good chap and sell the rights to the Team Lotus name to Clive Chapman for a peppercorn ammount so that the Chapman family can regain the name and ensure the fiasco of dragging the Lotus name through the dirt never happens again. Ever !!
 
Well I remember saying Bahar's vision of marketing the Lotus' name was over ambitious and it was going to end in tears

It is actually quite sad to see the great name of Lotus disappear from F1 again. I don't think the name should be brought back into F1 again given the bitter row over the naming rights between the two former team owners/ principals that fought over turned out was actually a waste of time now
 
Phew, that's a relief. With Renault dropping Pastor it would have been a change too many if they had dropped Miss Jorda as well. It's vital to the development of the team to have someone at the back of the garage for the TV cameras to cut to.
 
So Renault are going to put French Canadian Nicholas Latifi in for at least one FP1 session this year

F1 news: GP2 racer Latifi gets Renault F1 role, poised to make FP1 debut

With Frenchmen Ocon there as well there is a francophile feel to background of the team. Can't help but feel Magnusen and Palmer are stop-gaps until the car is developed a bit and they can put in drivers to fly the French flag, or at least one of them anyway.
 
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Not that I'm complaining of having a fellow Canadian back in F1, but I wonder if this has something to do with the fact that Renault is coming back to Canada after a long hiatus.
 
I would say espcially so as Latifi didn't light up WSR 3.5 last year. He has shown promise previously though.

If they wanted a Canadian they should have gone for poor old Robert Wickens
 
I think they wanted a Québécois. Wickens would have been a great option some years back but he's been written off. He himself supposedly rejected offers to be reserve driver for a couple of F1 teams. I suspect one of the them being Force India.
 
RasputinLives Apparently current drivers are only on 12 month contracts . An interesting choice Latifi some practice sessions given Oliver Rowland is also part of the Renault young driver programme and competing in Gp2 as well
 
I think the new Renault car looks awesome and I know it classic Renault colour scheme but due to its livery and it's two drivers I keep accidently referring to them as DAMS!
 
Renault sign Russian driver just before Russian Grand Prix and give said Russian driver a slot in P1 at Russian Grand Prix. Decision made purely on talent honest guv.

New Renault test driver Sergey Sirotkin to drive in Friday practice at Sochi

To be fair to Sirotkin he was the best of the rookies in GP2 last year and has steadily got better in the junior formula's over the last few seasons since all that fuss with Sauber.
 
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