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.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives

Reason for my pessimisism is Genii Capital the owners - very little is heard about them and when you do it is regarding finance and control ownership

Usually its bad news and it is worrying to hear that some engineers were ready to go on strike if they were not paid
they are without a title sponsor this season

Yes they had a great season last year but lets see if that it was no one season wonder and KImi can keep up his standards and Romain move up a notch

They have a smaller budget than the big 3 and Mercedes that is where my concerns are

 

[RasputinLives]

I do see what your saying but this is not HRT we are talking about, this is a world championship winning team that wins races and has a former world champion as a driver who is probably the 4th best known name in the sport. Your predictions of enstones downfall seem opotimistic in your case at best. How a team who has been at the front of the sport since the late 80s can be described as a one season wonder I don't know.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I wonder what will happen to the name? The whole Lotus thing all went pear shaped thanks to some huge ego battles at the very top of Malaysian industry and politics. It went beyond Bahar and Fernandez unfortunately.

What it did do is scupper any proper chance of a re-launch of Team Lotus, drag a legendary British motorsport name through the mud and almost bring group Lotus to its financial knees again. (though in fairness that was more to do with Bahars management).

Since the Lotus name is now no longer a sponsorship deal but the cars actual name and given that the deal for the naming rights was sorted out between Fernandez and group Lotus I guess, if the team formerly known as Renault, race this season as Lotus then we are to assume that this is the official (as in re-incarnated) Team Lotus.

Financially, venture capital companies are always looking for fresh money so I don't see it as a major issue as long as there is something worth buying and selling. With Kimi on board and the strong chance of further success this year they will be a good investment prospect for potential partners. Its some what ironic that when Renault last left F1 in the mid 80's, Lotus then became the "de-facto" works team and received and enjoyed the full support of the Renault engine people for a while.

That was of course until Senna arrived and brought with him the Honda deal. Hmmmm Honda to Lotus. Now there's a thought.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives

You're forgetting pretty much for most of Enstone team's history it was run by that Briatore which is still a cloud over the team

I call them one season wonder because post Briatore

- 2010 - the car was not a race winner but Kubica got 3 impressive podiums with it

- 2011 - they fell away after early season promise which underlines just what an amazing job Kubica did the previous season

- 2012 - Kimi hung in there scoring points but Lotus never truly capitalised on their race pace and they did struggle to keep up after the mid season break

Kimi's season was very good but you can also say it was too safe

That is why I am wondering if Kimi can keep the momentum from last season and how he will cope with an improving hopefully Grosjean

 

[RasputinLives]

The team had won races and been succesful before Flav came along. They were the only team until Red Bull came along to break the Williams/Ferrari/Mclaren stronghold since the mid 80s and they still have essential staff in place and more importantly the winning ethic. Changing the management structure doesn't change that. The team has always peaked and dipped and was in a far worse position in its latter days of Benneton than it has been in the last few years.

Concerning the name. You'll notice I never use the L word as I don't think becomes such a succesful team to try and piggy back someone elses rep. I'm hoping when a new title sponsor is found it'll be out the window. I'm hoping they'll just call themselves Enstone and that will be that.

 

[RasputinLives]

http://m.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/291374/cnbc-becomes-business-partner-of-lotus/

CNBC join Coca-Cola and Microsoft in backing the enstone based team. Not exactly unknown names.

I think rumours of their demise in some quarters may have been exaggerated.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives

There have been pointers about this team seems to get it right in the middle of the decade but they needed to divert resources to one driver operating 1 and 2 policy

Kimi is not a team leader of either Alonso or Schumacher as such and relies on his natural ability to do it on the track he has not got the workman like ethic the other two have

the team have to start the season like BRawn really

I am not saying they will go under as such more the fact that the team seems to have issues with financing as such and getting more backing from Genii capital which will hurt their ability to keep up with the big 3 now as they don't have that budget or resources

the team don't really consider themselves as Lotus but more Enstone team ..you would think a name like Lotus should allow them more sponsors

 

[Sakari]

Kimi is not a team leader of either Alonso or Schumacher as such and relies on his natural ability to do it on the track he has not got the workman like ethic the other two have

What a pile of garbage People just keep underestimating Kimi...

 

[teabagyokel]

Sakari - It does seem to happen quite often, doesn't it? Name the people who thought the Lotus was the third-best car last year then note who was third in the Championship.

 

[Il_leone]

Sakari

I compared his team leadership qualities to both Schumacher and Alonso and if he was then surely he would stayed at Ferrari and delivered more success and whom the Enstone team had the successes before
hand so that is a good barometer to compare to

Schumacher and Alonso would have probably won the title in the Lotus Renault last season

 

[teabagyokel]

Schumacher and Alonso would have probably won the title in the Lotus Renault last season

I can't see any reason why they would have. Raikkonen on 12 occasions scored 10 or less points (that's 5th or worse). That suggests to me a car that was consistently below the required level but occasionally overproduced - particularly in the hot conditions of the desert (ABD, BAH) or Southern Europe (ESP, VAL, HUN).

Their other three podiums were due to pit strategy (GRO - Canada), a demotion (RAI - Germany) and a specialism (RAI - Spa).

I don't see that the Lotus-Renault was capable of reaching the title, I don't see it as a car reached the heights Ferrari reached between Valencia and Austin (exclusive).

 

[Sakari]

Sakari

I compared his team leadership qualities to both Schumacher and Alonso and if he was then surely he would stayed at Ferrari and delivered more success and whom the Enstone team had the successes before
hand so that is a good barometer to compare to

Schumacher and Alonso would have probably won the title in the Lotus Renault last season

Well from what I gathered Schumacher could not have won last year even if he was the only driver out there.. Alonso drove good, but he had better car than Kimi and yet managed to lost the title.

 

[Il_leone]

Sakari
You must be joking to think Alonso had a better car than Kimi given it was never on the front row in the dry conditions barring Hamilton being sent to the back of the grid in Spain

Schumacher in his days pre 2007 would have won the title in that car not the one that came out of retirement in 2010 . Difference between Kimi and Alonso - one knows how to maximise the performance of their car on race day and that is certainly not the Iceman

 

[Il_leone]

teabagyokel

Problem was they always started too far down qualifying in the race and came alive too late in the race or too many times they squandered points because of accidents especially Grosjean

therefore they never truly maximised their chances despite their race pace suggesting they were quick enough to do so ..

they lost touch after the summer break in terms being ahead of Ferrari to being behind except in Abu Dhabi

 

[Il_leone]

Kimi realise too much on his natural talent to do the talking ..Ferrari did not understand his iceman attitude to the political charged atmosphere they have which could come across as lazy

Problem I see at Lotus is Bouillier ideally wants Grosjean to do well for the team to build around him in the future - being his manager so will give as much possibility to be one equal terms with Kimi who is never really one who will demand to be made de facto No 1

 

[Fenderman]

I wonder if the attraction of some major sponsors and the performance of Kimi and Lotus today will do anything to put some of the BS to rest? Somehow I doubt it. They'll need to wrap up a few more races and maybe even the titles before that happens methinks. Those ancient warriors warnings spring to mind: "Know thine enemy" and "Never underestimate your opponent."

Well done Kimi and Lotus for a great win from 7th on the grid. Keep it up chaps.

 

[Il_leone]

Convince Genii capital to put in a bit more money then

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Are Lotus running their passive DRS system? Or could they not get it to work?

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Team Lotus give Peugot a beat-down. Kerrrrpow!!!!

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

Bit ironic calling themselves '100% original' given that they stemmed from Renault who were Benetton who were Toleman. They're not even the original Lotus!