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 can't believe they need to sign anyone when they have Ms Jorda waiting in the wings for her chance to drive.

;)
 
Given Renault have been in and out more times than the Hokey Cokey it wouldn't be my first choice for a long term F1 career.

I would imagine the bulk of jobs in F1 are in the short term but some are far more short term than others.
 
The problem with Renault has been when they reach the top they don't appear to want to stay their forever. The challenge to reach the summit is better than being on top of the summit so it it seems to them

They have been short changed in that they were not getting any credit for Red Bull's success.

Getting their fingers burned with Flavio really bought them down but I have to say if they did not want to be in F1 for long term then they would not have bought Team Enstone

Lessons learned from last time will be to to make sure they appoint people they can trust to run the F1 team
 
The way I think about it Ricciardo is the driver of the season and the one who would be in demand by all top teams so Red Bull will fight to keep him

Off course Max has just been promoted and the team management dare not to criticise him so he is not going either

This leaves Sainz in a limbo he' s shown enough qualities and with so many young drivers entering F1 he may need to move if Renault can convince him that they will be winners again

Ocon needs a few more races and I think then he's up to speed in F1
 
Bill Boddy Off course they would say that but if you are Carlos Sainz you have to say to yourself you can't wait another 3 years to be promoted to Red Bull and by then Max Verstappen might have established himself to be a regular race winner

He should follow what his idol Alonso did who saw that as tempting as the contract might have been joining Ferrari back in 2001 would have meant he would have to be Schumacher's understudy and not show his full ability and he rejected it and went to Renault with a view of a race seat and knowing full well the team was going to be competititve
 
Interestingly this rumour came out from a German media source suggests that Renault will drop both current drivers and are not only after Sainz and Bottas but suddenly Hulkenberg is in the running but Perez is out of the running and rumoured going for the Haas drive and replacing Gutierrez

Renault hält Fahrermarkt auf: Franzosen wollen Hülkenberg, Bottas und Sainz


Force India are apparently behind their salary payments which is the trigger for Hulkenberg to look elsewhere
 
Titch It was not Renault that did not pay well

It was Genii Capital who kept delaying staff salaries

I think Allinson needs a new challenge and I can only see Mclaren with Alonso again enticing

Interestingly a lack of leadership is being cited as one of the reasons he turned it down... so who is running Enstone at the moment then?
 
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When Renault repurchased the team they said they had a 9-year commitment and a budget of 800m euros; hence under 90m euros per season, assuming they spread it out. Which is no increase on the old budget at all, and less than everyone else is spending except Manor.

So that might be part of it, and might also be why they won't make any progress next season (prediction alert!)
 
I think they will have to increase their budget or find some serious big sponsors to come up with the rest

The rumour seems to be Hulkenberg will join the team and probably paired with Ocon but it seems Palmer is doing his best to retain his seat , K Mag appears to be very dispirited with the team and is on his way out
 
Read somewhere that Renault have built a brand new engine for next year. I'll see if I can find a link.
 
I would have thought so seeing that both Red Bull and Toro Rosso will be using the engines and they learnt their lessons last time to pay more attention towards the engine building
 
Two relatively inexperienced drivers and a new management structure was likely to lead to a transitional year for Team Enstone. I think Hulkenberg's experience can only be to the benefit of the team and give them a focal point. Whether he is the driver to take them back to the top step of the podium is another matter.
 
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