After the San Marino Grand Prix, Renault and Alonso's championship leads came under attack from a fast-but-fragile McLaren-Mercedes team and Kimi Räikkönen respectively for the Drivers' Championship. Renault would make a return to F1 in 2016 with Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer as the two drivers. By mid-season it appeared as though Renault were making progress, with Alonso setting the fastest lap in Germany and securing pole position in Hungary, albeit on a light fuel load. After Piquet Jr. left the Renault team in August 2009, allegations surfaced that this crash had been deliberate, to give an advantage to Alonso. [81][82] On 21 June 2013, Renault unveiled its new engine at the Paris Air Show. Renault DP World F1 Team 2020 New Era 9FIFTY Stretch Snap Daniel Ricciardo Cap. A further double points finish in China was followed by Alonso's second-place finish at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix. After his first podium of the year in Singapore, Fernando Alonso confirmed that he would be leaving Renault, moving to Ferrari in 2010. 2002  Ferrari He had a poor start, but ran as high as sixth before the suspension failed on lap 40. Fernando Alonso 31. As a constructor, Renault have achieved the following statistics: 1960  Cooper Mia Sharizman, Renault Sport Academy Director: “The tests in Bahrain are part of a planned programme that the Academy has delivered every year for the past three years. The team was sold off and became Lotus F1 Team in 2012, before being re-purchased by Renault and becoming Renault Sport Formula One Team in 2016. A profile of the Renault F1 team, giving its current driver lineup, latest results and points scored plus current position in the constructors championship standings. [2] It was not until 2002 that this name change occurred. In 1963, Bruce McLaren founded the McLaren team.We contested our first Formula 1 race in 1966 and won our first F1 grand prix in Belgium in 1968. [96] Renault then terminated their 2016 engine supply agreement with Scuderia Toro Rosso, and the team returned to their former supplier Ferrari. Renault became a works engine manufacturer again in 2001, and in 2002 the Enstone-based team was re-branded as Renault. As a result, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds were thrown out of the team while Renault would sell a majority share of the team to Genii Capital. While Enstone was the main base during these periods, chassis-engine integration and some management and marketing activities were still carried out by the Viry-Châtillon base. 1995  Benetton The Monégasque driver has signed a five-year deal until the 2024 F1 season, and is seen as the team’s number one. Renault was innovative during this period producing non-standard designs such as the 111° 10-cylinder engine for the 2003 RS23 which was designed to effectively lower the center of gravity of the engine and thus improve the car's handling. The team was sold off and became Lotus F1 Team in 2012 , before being re-purchased by Renault and becoming Renault Sport Formula One Team in 2016 . Prominent PlayersFernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg. At the time, Piquet Jr. had characterised the incident as a simple mistake. [54] At the Eifel Grand Prix raced on the Nürburgring circuit, Ricciardo scored a third place finish, the team's first podium since Malaysia 2011. They also announced that Scuderia Toro Rosso would also return to Renault power from 2017. The drivers stand in front of their cars on the grid. In one of the biggest moves of the 2019 driver market, Ricciardo elected to go from the relatively safe bet of Red Bull to Renault, where next year he’ll drive alongside Nico Hulkenberg, who starts his third year for the Anglo-French team. In 1983, Renault began supplying engines to other teams. Alpine is the name of Renault's sporty car brand. They finished 4th in the championship with 122 points. Jabouille's car and engine proved highly unreliable and became something of a joke during its first races, earning the nickname of "Yellow Teapot" and failing to finish any of its races despite being comparatively powerful. The team competed under the Lotus name from 2012 until 2015, following the renaming of the former Renault team based at Enstone in Oxfordshire. Alonso drove alongside promoted test driver Nelson Piquet Jr., and was believed to have secured number one status within the team. Fisichella finished 3rd, while Alonso finished 5th. He took advantage of a rain-affected qualifying session to win the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix. In 1986 the team was renamed to Benetton Formula, following its purchase in 1985 by the Benetton family. [78] Red Bull came back to a dominant pace in the 2013 season and both the team and Sebastian Vettel secured their fourth consecutive title at the 2013 Indian Grand Prix. 2014  Mercedes The team's pace began to pick up in Barcelona, with both drivers making it into Q3, setting competitive lap times in the race (4th fastest lap for Kovalainen) and looking set for 5th and 8th, only to be hampered by an identical problem on both fuel rigs, forcing both drivers to make extra pitstops which dropped them back to 7th and 9th. In 1983, Renault and Prost came very close to winning the drivers' title but were edged out by Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) at the last race of the season in South Africa. Driven by Frenchman François Hesnault, the car only lasted 8 laps before a clutch problem forced it to retire. More pole positions and two wins for the Brazilian followed with the Lotus 98T, but the car followed similar problems as its predecessor with reliability problems and poor fuel consumption. The F1 2021 season is already underway but the Renault F1 team is missing in the paddock. The Renault RS01 was well known for its Renault-Gordini V6 1.5 L turbocharged engine, the first regularly used turbo engine in Formula One history. He ran outside the top 10 until his engine failed on lap 24, continuing their awful run of reliability. At the opening round in Bahrain, Petrov retired with broken suspension while in the pit lane on lap 14, and Kubica finished in eleventh place. The Chinese driver is Renault DP World F1 Team’s Test Driver and currently sits eighth in the 2020 Drivers’ standings with one win and five podiums this year. [68] Drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber won another five victories to allow the team to finish second in the Constructors' Championship. Heidfeld finished ninth in Spain after missing qualifying due to a fire in practice, while Petrov finished just outside the points in eleventh place. Despite outscoring his teammate during 2002, Button was dropped by Renault in 2003. He was twelfth in qualifying for the team's first Monaco Grand Prix, and gave the team their first finish in Formula One, finishing in tenth place four laps down on race-winner Tyrrell's Patrick Depailler. Rookie Heikki Kovalainen struggled even more than the Italian, spinning his car as he chased Toyota's Ralf Schumacher and ending up in 10th place. Renault had been suspended for one race (the 2009 European Grand Prix) due to the incident involving Fernando Alonso's wheel not being fitted properly in the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, however this has been overturned on appeal following a decision from the FIA on 17 August 2009. Renault took advantage of a change in regulation and would go on to win both the drivers and constructors title. Also of note was the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix, which the team was disqualified from as a result of their automatic brake balance changing system, which was deemed illegal. The 2007 season saw Fernando Alonso's departure coincide with a loss of form for the French team. Renault F1 Team. Alonso's front row qualifying performance in Spain was a rare moment of achievement from the former World Champion. At the French Grand Prix, Renault were expected to be faster than Ferrari, but Ferrari again had the advantage. In September 2017, Renault and McLaren announced the latter would use Renault engines from 2018 to 2020. The team did not enter the first two races of 1978, in Argentina and Brazil, but returned for the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami. The FIA announced its intention to appeal that decision and Renault announced they would not race with the system for fear of retrospective punishment if the appeal was upheld. Read about the latest developments on the 2017 F1 driver market here: In January 2011, team principal Éric Boullier announced that the team would race under a British licence in 2011, having raced as a French outfit since Renault took over in 2002. [79][80], Renault developed a new 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged engine, the Renault Energy F1-2014, in line with the new regulations for 2014 with APC Pankl Turbosystems GmbH supplying hybrid turbocharger kits for Renault Formula One engines since 2014 season. Alain Prost was signed up for 1981. Renault war bereits von 1977 bis 1985 als Équipe Renault und von 2001 bis 2009 als Renault F1 werksseitig in der Formel 1 engagiert; Fernando Alonso wurde 2005 und 2006 mit dem Werksteam Weltmeister. Fernando returns to Formula One following a two-year break, taking the seat in a car directly linked to the Renault F1 Team with which he claimed his two Formula One World Drivers’ Championships in 2005 and 2006. Kimi Raikkonen (confirmed 2008 driver) | biography | articles. ... Test/reserve/third drivers TBC. The 2004 season saw further developments as the team would end the season third in the standings. The Alpine Academy – formerly known as the RF1 Driver Programme, Renault Driver Development and Renault Sport Academy – is a program to support young racing drivers through their careers.