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.
 
How about they use the engine they built for the Delorean, the PRV12? (the PRV stood for Peugeot, Renault, Volvo).

With the simple edition of a flux capacitor, as soon as the car reaches 88 miles an hour off the start line they can time travel to the end of the race.

Beat that Mercedes!! LOL
 
So Team Enstone have come back as Renault since 2016 and they are still no closer to the front

They are questions about their commitment beyond 2020 according to the interim CEO since Carlos Ghosn is no longer in charge. Having issued a statement that Renault will look at all its future activities including F1 team.

Abiteboul is convinced that Renault will stay in F1

However they have signed Pat Fry to their technical team. I think it would be too late for him to have an impact on next year's car


I am disappointed that Renault have failed to crack the hybrid era and also they have struggled to get to the front. In the current climate in F1, the gap to the front 3 is very big and without a customer to compare to I don't see how Renault will close the gap
 
I think people are missing the point on the number of teams. I'd rather have 7 teams that were all allowed to win than 10 teams where 6 of then weren't.

With the engine suppliers all having their own teams and using their tech they are there to make up the numbers. The only engine manufacturer who have ever let a team running their engines beat them is Renault and that's because they just don't have the interest. No matter how good they are or the time they spend A Racing Point will never beat a Merc, An Alfa will never beat a Ferrari, A Toro Rosso will never beat a Red Bull. They are there to make the big teams win look legit.

Very sad really.
 
The real game changer would be in attracting engine builders who just want to make competitive F1 engines.

Max was along the right lines with the Cosworth engine but they had no real chance of catching up when the original budget cap plans fell apart.

As always in F1, the turkeys will never vote for Christmas.

Looking at 1986 as a high water mark for engine builders there were 11 different engines on the grid. Under todays point scoring rules, 26 drivers and 13 different teams would have scored points.
 
Also what's fascinating about that is there was, I believe, only one 'manufacter' team on the grid then too which was Ferrari - who let's face it are kind of not anyways.
 
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i agree on that in le mans way 53 cars is pointless if only toyota can win. & we want to see more winners like we saw 15/20 yrs when a car 4th in constructors would win a few & now they are lucky if they make a podium. but we don't want to see 14 cars go around thats not enough we want to get back to 26. more cars more entertainment

Also what's fascinating about that is there was, I believe, only one 'manufacter' team on the grid then too which was Ferrari - who let's face it are kind of not anyways.

i like it when people coming round to b
me that its the privateers you need to keep happy not the manufacturers ;) :D
 
Well I've probably said this many times before but I believe that engines and teams should deliberately be kept apart for the sake of the sport. So the engine suppliers would have a contract with the FIA to supply a certain amount of engines. These engines would be supplied directly to the FIA. Every 3 years there would be a draft where teams would decide which engine they want (obvs only a certain amount could have a certain engine). Then the FIA supply the engines to the team.

I also believe the FIA should build a basic chassis which they supply to the teams. The teams know this is their chassis for next three years but they get to develop the hell out of it.

I know some would not like that but I really think it would go someway to making F1 a sport again.
 
I like part 1 of that, maybe in NFL way that the privateers get a choice but worst performing 1st, so Williams, Haas, Alfa Romeo, Racing point, McLaren but the only issue would be that they would have to do it on 2018 for 2020 because they start building it may 2019

part 2 I wouldn't be comfortable about it I still like that all the teams build there own & they all have their own charactisics & what Adrian newey would come up with
 
So Renault are likely to be renamed Alpine next year.


Should be good at altitude but not sure why they are naming themselves after a breakfast cereal.
 
not sure why they are naming themselves after a breakfast cereal.
Renault Alpine has a lot of history and produced some lovely looking cars.

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i heard that the head of suzuki moto GP team was moving to Renault/Alpine. but i didnt realise he was effectively replacing him. as i thought he was pretty important at Renault hes been there 8yrs starting at Caterham. but i bet Christian Horner is delighted. id love to read what he put on his leaving card

but Alonso will always have confidence, its his nature & he does back it up as wasnt it 2007 the last time he was beaten by a teammate
 
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