What future for Renault in F1?

This was supposed to be the marriage of the future: Renault wanted a top driver to showcase its ambitions, and Daniel Ricciardo wanted a team built around him to be able to fight for the world championship title, similar to what Lewis Hamilton managed to build at Mercedes. In the summer of 2018, Renault and Daniel Ricciardo shook up the transfer market, with Cyril Abiteboul taking particular pleasure in stealing a driver from his future ex-client Christian Horner and Red Bull. Alain Prost, the team’s special advisor, declared that the team no longer had anything to hide behind and needed to live up to its drivers.

But a year and a half later, what a contrast and what disappointments. The 2019 season was a true letdown with Renault unable to bridge the gap with the top three. Worse, its customer, McLaren, managed to take fourth place with a substantial margin, before declaring that they preferred to return to the Mercedes fold starting in 2021. In 2017, Renault had three teams (its own and the Red Bull/Toro Rosso duo) compared to just one starting next season, significantly reducing its footprint in the discipline.

Today, Daniel Ricciardo has decided to walk away at the end of his contract. This means that he will spend an entire season with a team in which he no longer believes in the growth potential for the coming years. The completely cold statement from Cyril Abiteboul to officially announce this situation is certainly a clear indicator that relations will be far from cordial over the next six months.

But above all, one can wonder about the future of Renault in the discipline. One of the keys will obviously be the name of Honey Badger’s successor. If the team decides to renew the experience with a name that has strong commercial potential (Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, etc.), one might think they will equip themselves to continue their quest for world titles. On the other hand, if they decide to fall back in line, then the question of sustainability in the discipline may arise.

Of course, in the public statements from the team’s leaders, there is no mention of withdrawing from a global communication platform. However, it must be taken into account that the manufacturer operates in a context where its primary activity is seriously disrupted by the current health crisis, which will lead to a significant decline in the global automotive market. The brand has already announced that it is withdrawing from the Chinese market, the largest in the world, in favor of its ally Nissan.

This will certainly lead the manufacturer to request assistance from its shareholder, the French government. However, the government has already made such aid conditional on relocating production facilities to French territory. It’s hard to imagine that billions of euros of public money would be invested in a manufacturer that continues to spend millions in F1 to fight for anonymous 8th or 10th places.

All of this comes at a time when the new Concorde Agreements, the commercial agreements that govern F1, have still not been signed by any team, even though the deadline is set for the end of the current season. Strong decisions will have to be made in the coming weeks and months. It remains to be seen in which direction they will go…

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr