Last Updated on September 30 2024, 10:41 pm

Renault announced today that F1 engine activities at Viry would “continue until the end of the 2025 season”. Implied is after that they will cease, but the statement from the French manufacturer appears deliberately vague. 

Clearly for 2026 any F1 power unit manufacturer is now well under way with their research and development programme with Red Bull first time producers of an F1 powertrain having released regular progress updates for now over a year.

Renault will have made a similar investment to others thus far in the R&D and testing for their 2026 power unit but rumours have persisted they will for the first time since they entered F1 own a team but not supply the power. Mercedes are rumoured to be the apple of the Alpine management’s eye at the moment.

 

 

 

Renault mid to lower table team

Renault won four consecutive team and driver championships with Red Bull between 2010-2013, but since then the cupboard has been pretty bare. The French V6 Turbo hybrid was unreliable and lacking in power, something Christian Horner and Red Bull bemoaned for years until they struck a deal with Honda for 2019.

Red Bull are again winning with their Japanese partners, but in the meantime Renault bought back their works Enstone outfit (2016) in an attempt to reignite the glory years they had a decade previously with Fernando Alonso (2005/6).

However, the F1 project has been a failure for Renault. On its return to F1 in 2016, the team was ninth in the constructors championship and its results for the subsequent seasons are as follows: P6, P4, P5, P5, P5, P4, P6 and are currently 9th in 2024.

As with Honda previously, the Renault automaker’s main board has always had regular influence in the F1 team, something many commentators believe is the reason for their lack of progress. Honda this year finally set up its HRC Racing programme as an independent company and so its future will be more stable and less prone to global strategic decisions made in Japan.

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“Chronic underinvestment”

Given the failure of the F1 programme its understandable that Renault have decided enough is enough, but it appears strange they are ton close the power unit division whilst retaining a team in the sport driven by a competitors power unit.

F1 commentator Ben Johnson wrote today, “Of course, one way of addressing years of chronic underinvestment and underestimation of your F1 engine project is to nix it completely and, although this very much looks like the result of recent management upheaval (with the puppeteering hand of Briatore behind it), I feel like this is the uncivilised ending to a long-running civil war.”

The problem Renault have is that they sold a significant stake in their Alpine F1 team to a number of high profile investors last season. Alpine and Otro Capital welcomed some of the world’s biggest sports stars as new strategic investors into their €200m fund, including Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Rory McIlroy, and Anthony Joshua.

Alpine had another investment company already owing a slice from RedBird Capital Partners and Maximum Effort Investments – and also from Actor Ryan Reynolds. They too had invested €200m and acquired a 24% stake in the French outfit.

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Renault eyeing McLaren model

The closing of the power unit at Viry and taking on Mercedes power smacks of Renault trying to do a McLaren who have built a world beating car and use Mercedes power. Yet McLaren would surely have their own unique power unit supplier if possible, given this is the way most F1 titles have been won.

McLaren are in a golden era and bucking there historic trend, so if bolting on a Mercedes engine is Renault’s new hopes for success it is Cleary missing the mark.

Years of under investment in the Enstone base have seen the team’s ability to produce successful cars decline. Who knows where Ryan Reynolds and the others listed above cash has gone, but it clearly has not been invested like McLaren and Aston Martin in building world beating facilities to deliver the best environment for their engineers to thrive.

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F1 membership most valuable asset

Of course the civil war between Viry and Nestle will now end and maybe by ending the mud slinging between both parties around who is to blame more for the team’s poor performance, this will either demonstrate Enstone has some value when using Mercedes power units, because as a stand alone capital asset, it would barely raise the funds to repay the team’s star owners.

Alpine’s most valuable asset is their F1 membership card which currently is only granted to ten teams in the world. It has been suggested already that Andretti could be a potential buyer for the Enstone team, but the price currently will be a sticking point.

If Andretti needed to invest €200m to bring the Enstone facilities top to scratch, this means them paying at least €600m before hiring competent personnel. While various marketers and black book valuation specialists have teams valued way more than this, the worth of an F1 team is based on what someone is prepared to pay.

Audi are believed to have completed their deal to buy Sauber  earlier this year for around €540m Euros, so this gives some kind of benchmark for what a back of the grid team could get, should it sell now.

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Fourth most successful in F1 history

Renault tried to do F1 on the cheap and even with the introduction of the cost cap, previous team boss Otmar Szafnaeur revealed Alpine was short of having the budget to meet the finance limit by an order of tens of millions.

Williams meanwhile announced this year they were closing their list of partners given they could now spend up to the cost cap limits while investing around €40m a year in the team’s infrastructure.

Renault has won two constructors’ and drivers’ championships, while as an engine manufacturer it has 12 constructors’ and 11 drivers’ championships. It has collected over 160 wins as engine supplier, ranking fourth in Formula One history. 

Could Renault change their minds a la Honda who were leaving F1 at the end of 2025, then six months later decided to stay? The coded statement which does not state the Viry F1 programme will end in 2025 is somewhat puzzling, but the writing appears to be fully on the wall for a once proud team.

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F1 venue may lose its Grand Prix due to lack of finance

The Spanish Grand Prix was one of the earliest to host the newly founded Formula one series in 1950. The following year the inaugural F1 event was held along the wide streets of the Pedralbes street circuit in Barcelona.

A lack of funds meant the race was cancelled for the next two seasons, but returned inn 1954 with Mike Hawthorn ending Ferrari’s dominance. The Le Mans accident in 1955 meant new regulations deemed the circuit unsafe in Spain and the Spanish Grand Prix was not held again until 1968.

With two suitable circuits in Monjuic and Jarama, the event was held at each in alternative years. The 1975 event was marked by tragedy and before the cars hit the circuit,. Concerns over safety were raised… READ MORE