In the winter period, before the 2016 season got underway, Renault’s long rumoured return to Formula One was finally confirmed.
It was becoming apparent the French marque was looking to make a full factory return to the sport, with talks being held with teams up and down the paddock. However, it was no secret that the Enstone-based Lotus team was suffering from a haemorrhaging cash flow problem, even debt collectors were showing up at the gates of the factory.
So after the well-known fallout between Red Bull and Renault during the 2015 season, they managed to secure a deal to return to F1 with a works team from the base they sold at the end of 2011.
It has been difficult throughout the 2016 season, taking over what was left of the Lotus outfit, which wasn’t much, meant resources were much left to be desired and so was the car’s design. The chassis that was designed and built late and therefore had very little development.
But does the future look bright?
History is very much on their side, they have been hugely successful as an engine supplier in Formula One for numerous years, helping Williams, Benetton and most recently Red Bull to victories and world championships.
As a factory team, they do hold only the 2005 and 2006 Constructors’ championships to their name as well as helping Fernando Alonso clinch his world titles at the same time.
Their first buyout of the Enstone-based team back in 2002 is a very good marker to see how they progressed as a team and moved forward.
Every year they slowly built themselves up, slowly creeping up the order and securing better results, while 2002 was not so successful, 2003 saw their first win with Fernando Alonso at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix, with a few other podium appearances, securing fourth in the Constructors’ that season.
2004 saw another victory for Jarno Trulli in the Monaco Grand Prix while fending off the attack from Jenson Button in the BAR-Honda. Renault was locked in a tough fight with BAR for second that year, but ultimately lost out and took third as the improvements kept on coming.
In 2005 and 2006 the goal was finally realised as Alonso helped himself and Renault to two world titles.
It took four seasons at the time to ultimately get themselves back to winning ways in those years leading up to the title success, but looking forward to 2017 and beyond; can Renault repeat something similar?
To take the 2016 results and judge them would be very unfair, inheriting a factory that was bereft of money and resources and expecting them to perform well was always going to be a tough ask. But from 2017, with the Enstone factory in the UK and the French base in Viry-Chatillon having been steadily rebuilt through the year, there are big hopes and expectations.
The 2017 design changes represent a huge opportunity for the team to take advantage to get back into the fray of achieving top results, couple that with the removal of the power unit development tokens, an area where Renault have been weaker than their rivals since the turn of the hybrid era, then the chance to take a stranglehold and develop a much stronger package is very clear.
Looking at their driver line-up, the relationship between Kevin Magnussen and Renault was getting fractious and it was no longer going to be sustainable. Signing Nico Hulkenberg and keeping hold of Jolyon Palmer was huge for the team, Palmer keeping continuity in the team and Hulkenberg bringing in his speed and experience is a sign of things to come.
While management at Renault has also been rough-going, tensions seem to have eased with Frederic Vasseur and Cyril Abiteboul leading the race team together, while Bob Bell is leading the technical side of things with great support from Nick Chester and Remi Taffin.
Renault has the money to put into the team, resources in place to help push themselves forward and the will to win. It might not be instantaneous, but history is on their side, give them time and they can most certainly get back to winning ways.
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