The return of the Renault Works team.

Greenlantern101

Super Hero And All Round Good Guy
Contributor
Renault have been dipping in and out of F1 since 1977 in one guise or another. Currently supplying Redbull and Toro Rosso. There is talk afoot of them now taking over Toro Rosso and bringing back the Renault Works team.

Renault have a significant track record of 304 races, 35 race victories, 51 pole positions, 2 drivers championships and 2 constructors championships. Plenty of big boy scaring form there. This could be good.

The inclusion of another manufacturer works team would be a much need security blanket for Formula One. With F1's run away costs, consistently failing to be addressed, the only realistic way to get financially secure teams in F1 is for them to be backed by car manufacturers.

It would of course be far better for F1 if Renault were to do a HAAS and leave Toro Rosso alone and look at bringing in a new Renault Works team from scratch. Two extra cars on the grid would be a far better scenario for F1, what with Caterham falling off the back of the grid last year.

If they were to come back as a works team it would be unlikely they would supply engines to another top team such as Redbull. So I guess Horner would have to moan about someone else's engine. My heart bleeds.

I think this would be great for F1. To have Renault back as a fully blown works team would make me and I'm sure many other F1 fans very happy.

Lets hope it happens.
 
Last edited:
In taking over STR they would have to make the choice of running the team from Italy of moving the entire outfit out of the country to either France or the UK.

I confess I'm in the 'not bothered about Renault" bracket. They have been in and out more times than the Okey Cokey.

Maybe having a French team back could add pressure for the return of the French GP.
 
If Renault did come back in, and they did choose to drop Red Bull as you say Greenlantern101 who would supply RB an engine? You know Merc aren't going to. That leave Honda or Ferrari. A very interesting hyperthetical.
 
Why wouldn't Renault supply other teams with their engine? Whenever they've been in F1 as a works team in the past under one incarnation or the other they've almost always supplied other teams as well. Why would that change now?
 
I'm sure they would supply other teams, I just can't see them supplying a 'top' team in direct competition with them.

Maybe Cosworth need to come back as well.
 
There's something about Renault in the past few years that I've been finding slightly puzzling. Horner in particular has spent the past few years more or less openly criticising Renault and banging on about lack of power and yet the big brass in Paris have never come across as being particularly bothered about it. It also seemed to me that Renault have never really sought to profit from Red Bull's successive titles marketing-wise. How many "RENAULT WORLD CHAMPION" posters with a Red Bull car in the background or ad campaign have you seen in the 2010-14 period?

Not quite sure what is the point of F1 for a big manufacturer in you fail to use it as a promotional tool. It's almost as though the company have little interest in whatever the racing outlets that bear their logo are up to...:dunno:
 
To be honest, the only link to F1 I have seen in the UK recently were the Santander adverts with Button in his racing gear. I can't remember the last time I saw a car / F1 themed advert?
 
Last edited:
In taking over STR they would have to make the choice of running the team from Italy of moving the entire outfit out of the country to either France or the UK.

I confess I'm in the 'not bothered about Renault" bracket. They have been in and out more times than the Okey Cokey.

Maybe having a French team back could add pressure for the return of the French GP.

Yes, because the top team, the top engine constructor, and many of the top drivers being German has done wonders for the German GP.

I do think starting a new team is in their best interest. Renault has the resources to do it, won't have to deal with Red Bull in the process, and won't have to move from Italy. And it will be good from us. Hearing that until they can get their own team we might see the Toro Rosso's painted yellow though. Maybe not this year but possibly next.
 
I can't say I'm excited about Renault's return if I'm honest. I kind of feel like manufacturers are the reason F1 is screwed up as much as it is anyway.

Renault will come in and pump cash into a small team and all will be good as long as they are being succesful and giving themselves great PR to sell cars - which lets face it is what the company is actually about - but as soon as thinks don't go that well they'll pull out the sport leaving a whole load of mess behind them, a wrecked team, lots of people unemployed and a massive space on the grid.

Red Bulls image is taking a bashing right now so they'll go soon and as soon as Merc start losing they be off too.

I hate to sound old but when I started watching in 1990 there were 19 teams and, other tha Ferrari (the exception that proves the rule), none of them were manufacturer teams. They were all actual race teams. The thing is that there were 8 different engine suppliers too and this was before the likes of Yamaha even got involved.

That was how it used to works. The race teams built the car and concentrated on the racing whilst the manufacturer got their PR and prestige from supplying the engine that powered the car to its glory. That way when they pulled out because the results weren't what they wanted the teams survived and could move on to get power from elsewhere.

It was a healthy system because the teams were only focused on racing and did the right thing for the sport. They had no other motive or goal.

Maybe I'm just being old but it just seemed a better focus.
 
I agree 100% but in the past teams weren't running on 100 millions per year.

F1 is broken for the garagista and the only thing that can currently survive is manufacturers.... Whilst there whim is soaring.

Now if we fire Bernie, stop giving the top teams a say in running the sport and action the FIA to bring in a cost cap....then your plan and idealisms may come back to where we all wish F1 was at, and indeed should never have left.
 
One major problem for F1 today is the step-up series GP2. Back in the sixties that didn't exist and a key area for talent advancement was Formula 500 which was light years away from F1. Today if you apply restrictions, and they don't have to be that significant, the step-up series becomes as spectacular and in many ways outshines motorsports premier series.
 
Last edited:
Westy Honda are based in Milton Keynes so they are the closest to Red Bull should they want the engines having said that Ron will make sure they get their hands on the engines or at least with a 10 year contract make Mclaren the factory team

Audi has been mooted as the possibility

----------------

Renault - back in F1 .. I think it also needs a return of the French GP to make it more appealing to them to be honest.

They got a lot of bashing from Horner and Marko about the engines but Red Bull are the ones that danced with the devil by getting out of the Ferrari engine deal by saying the contract was with Red Bull Corporation not Red Bull Racing because the engines were expensive and no customer Ferrari team had won a race until Monza 2008. They've had the same issue since the engine freeze back in 2008 about power and now the gap has gotten wider and Newey can't make the difference

So really I don't see why Ferrari will give them engines unless they will "sell" Ricciardo to them in future.

So really Red Bull can't say their partnership with Renault has not been fruitful and rewardning

The animosity between Red Bull and Mercedes will render the chance of engines pretty much zero at the moment
 
Last edited:
Incubus Renault previously working on a pure supplier customer base relationship and probably did not market themselves as loudly as they should and seen favouring one team..although they did promote a one off Infiniti Car with Red Bull livery

I think Renault are not the typical French companies where they would go on strike if they got bashed like they did. They saw the bigger picture of how it would affect their image if they did and won't gain from it .
 
RasputinLives I have to somewhat agree because their first venture as a works team was like a national team will all Frehcn drivers which should have got them the world titles in 1980's with Prost but they got complacent and got rid of him which was the start of the slide just as when Honda, and BMW worked out how to extract more power from the turbos whilst Porsche built a more driveable engine for the races

The Renault of 2000 's peaked with Alonso and was about letting Flavio manage the team with the backed finances because they were delivering on track with results. They got hoodwinked into re-signing Alonso but the results were not the same and crashgate really burnt their fingers
 
Infiniti (which is 43.4% owned by Renault) has extensively used the Red Bull world championship as a marketing tool. So I don't think it is fair to say that Renault gets no marketing benefit out of being partner to Red Bull.

 
I don't think any of the Renault car ads you see features Red Bull Racing... probably because the Red Bull brand is too recognisable and would be too considered cross promotion
 
Renault return ..... and they could get Flavio back to run the team.

After all he's probably had enough of trying to bring about world peace. :ermmm:

Oh, wait, it was a completely different old fraud got that job .... :thinking: it'll come to me in a minute.
 
Back
Top Bottom