Can Renault win again?

Over the last thirty years, one engine manufacturer has won more F1 world championships than any other. It isn’t an engine from the luxury brand of Ferrari, nor the ruthlessly efficient and reliable Mercedes. No, this high achievement is from the French, partially state-owned, affordable city-car producing, Renault.

Their fortunes may currently be wavering, but Renault has a rich history in the sport. Ferrari may enjoy the oft-hailed record of being the most successful name in Formula One. However, they hold just four more constructor’s titles than Renault as an engine supplier. And Renault entered the sport twenty-seven years later than the Scuderia. Playing the percentage game, Renault has them beaten, hands down.

Rewind to 2007 and Renault was in a very different position from today. They were fresh off the back of consecutive Constructors’ Championships spearheaded by Fernando Alonso. Crucially, they had just begun supplying engines to Red Bull; a deal which would bring both parties four back-to-back world titles from 2010 onwards.

As such, Renault started the last decade as the envy of the paddock following their development genius and subsequent success. The out-of-the-box thinking by Renault engineers resulted in a way for their engine to blow exhaust gas at all times. If the driver were on or off-throttle, the engine was tuned for exhaust blowing, which allowed the car to harness additional downforce. Adrian Newey and his team used this to their aerodynamical advantage, and the Red Bull team attained rear grip levels their rivals never could.

Life at the top wasn’t all roses, though. While the Austrian constructor took the accolades and praise, people overlooked Renault’s contribution. It was the Red Bull brand making headlines, not the French supplier. The contractual agreement between the two didn’t help, with the Renault-Nissan alliance opting for Nissan’s premium ‘Infiniti’ brand to adorn the car. Infiniti even became title sponsors in 2013 and 2014, further obscuring Red Bull’s partnership with Renault. Any photograph of the RB8 and RB9 cars prominently show the Infiniti sponsorship, with the Renault name relegated to the rear. A layman would be forgiven for thinking it was Nissan and Infiniti, not Renault, bringing the power the Red Bull dominance.

In 2014, with the advent of the 1.6L turbocharged V6’s, a performance gap emerged between Renault and the works Mercedes. Toro Rosso, Lotus, and Caterham, who Renault also supplied, were significantly behind the Mercedes customer teams. Ferrari edged forwards in 2015, and for the first time since 2007, a Renault-powered car did not win a race. To add insult to injury, the Enstone-based Lotus team terminated their contract with Renault after a 20-year partnership together, in favor of Mercedes engines.

How quickly times change in F1. The new regulations had turned the fortunes of the French outfit upside down. An unhappy and relatively uncompetitive Red Bull looked for alternative suppliers and found none. Instead of a civil separation, the two entities found themselves locked in an unhappy customer/supplier relationship. Bizarrely, Red Bull branded their Renault power units as TAG Heuer (yes, the watch manufacturer) for 2016 and the following three seasons. To add fuel to this Mobil 1-powered fire, Renault bought out the ailing Lotus team and returned to the F1 grid themselves.

While Mercedes was busy running away with championships, occasionally bothered by Ferrari, Renault had to battle on two fronts. The Renault F1 Team was looking to re-establish themselves to return to the ’05/’06 glory years. Meanwhile, they had to appease an increasingly vocal and brand-damaging customer, and now rival, in Red Bull Racing. Their status was unique. Ferrari and Mercedes occupied a position where they remained front-runners, and their engine customers lagged behind. But Renault found themselves racing as backmarkers while their unhappy customers competed for podiums.

The return of Renault as a constructor didn’t catapult them to the front as they hoped. Their first year back was with a 2016 car whose development got abandoned in favor of the 2017 model. The team finished in 9th place. Despite the working hours put into it, the 2017 challenger could only muster a lackluster 6th with regular retirements plaguing both the Renault F1 team and Red Bull. 2018 was an improvement to 4th, but it was very much best of the rest as Renault finished 533 points off the top spot, and never once came close to even competing for a podium.

In 2018, the Red Bull ‘situation’ finally ran its course. For 2019, both Red Bull and Toro Rosso were going to be supplied by Honda. Thankfully for fans, this played out rather publicly providing reality TV drama on the Drive to Survive episode “The Art of War”.

“Now you have no engine and no driver,” taunted Renault F1 boss, Cyril Abiteboul, to Christian Horner following Renault’s poaching of Red Bull’s driver, Daniel Ricciardo.

“Now that you’ve spent all your money on a driver, have you got any left for your engine? ” Horner snaps back. It seemed that the answer was “no” following Renault’s slide down the championship order in 2019, even with a top driver in Ricciardo.

Dropping from 4th to 5th may not sound significant, but the Anglo-French F1 team scored fewer points than the previous season. Even more telling, they finished behind their now sole customer, McLaren. A McLaren that announced they would be switching engine supplier to Mercedes from 2021, thus leaving Renault with no customers. In 2020, Renault’s complaints regarding the lack of credit from the Red Bull championships of the early 2010s seem trivial in comparison to problems they now face.

Can Renault bounce back? Of course, they will say so. They’d cite a vague belief about 2021 regulations, or the budget cap restrictions letting them fulfill their potential. After all, victory in racing is in their culture. As discussed earlier, they have a significant history of success in Formula One. Surely that counts for something? Well, I don’t think so.

All current Formula One engine suppliers can boast about their heritage. Even Honda, who last enjoyed a championship back in 1991 with McLaren, after winning six Constructors Championships in a row. All the suppliers believe they can craft the best power unit to propel a team to a title; otherwise, they’re paying money to devalue their companies’ credibility.

Over the past ten years, Mercedes have run rampant. Ferrari has nearly always been there or thereabouts. Honda rejoined one year after the regulation change and took five years to get up to speed, but now look to be running Mercedes close in pre-season testing. Meanwhile, Renault has failed to adapt to the turbo-hybrids, failed to juggle being supplier and constructor, and have failed to convince me they have any capability to win in the next decade.

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