Place your bets: Renault’s Future in Formula 1

Speaking about Renault’s near future in Formula 1, Carlos Ghosn remained unsurprisingly ambiguous. “We will honour our contract” which expires in 2016, he repeated to the room of journalists hoping to pick up an early scoop.

Happy families
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner (Left) and Carlos Ghosn (Right)

Prior to the going out of the red lights of the final round of the Formula E Championship, we were taken to the Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel and into an underground meeting room for a press conference with Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan. This is the man who saved Renault from near bankruptcy through an array of aggressive philosophy changes. So naturally his answers were as shrewd as his business decisions.

When directly confronted by Renault’s subjection to criticism from Red Bull and the media he states that it is the nature of sport to forget you when you win, something they have achieved extensively since their debut in the 1977 British Grand Prix.  But as we can see from their current performance plight, everyone remembers you when you are losing.

Genesis: The 1977 Renault RS01

In such a competitive environment, a fall from grace can be fatal which is why Carlos stated that the next step of the process is for Renault to analyse their F1 strategy. “All the options are open and we are frankly analysing today for the different options.” And as they promise to take a much larger role in Formula E, Formula 1 may well be considered unviable or worse, detrimental to their goals. With Renault and Nissan leaders in EVs as well, Formula E seems much more suited to their ethos at present.

A reoccurring theme in both the press conference and a low key interview with 4 time world Champion Alain Prost, was the necessity to treat the two different series as exactly that- independent entities. As such Carlos states that everything is open, and this would seem to suggest that Renualt’s future in F1 is mutually exclusive to Formula E, but I suspect not. Although Renault are keeping their options open, Ghosn placed the focus in a need to “honour their tradition”.

“The question of Formula One is not the question ‘is it cheap?’ or ‘is it expensive?’ but it is ‘what is your return?’ A cheap participation with no return will cost you more than an expensive participation with a big return. Renault obviously have the surface, and have the money and the resources to participate in anything it wants.”

“It is a question of return and you have 3 options: 0 investment, 0 return; fair. Second is low investment with zero return, low return, high return. Unfortunately we did not find the high return for the low investment with the engine. We did not find it so far. So we are trying to track it. Then we have full participation which is owning a team, but then the question is, what’s your return? But the return depends obviously on your performance. But here we have a long history of competing at the highest level. Formula 1. So it’s not something we are afraid of. Even though it’s a competition so you’re never sure you are going to win. But let’s not forget that even though the last two years have been mediocre, for the years before we have been winning. We have a long tradition and we understand the limits of the game. You can win, you can lose, but you want to make the show, you want to be part of the show. The question is, is it worth it? You are engaging hundreds of engineers, you are putting millions of euros, you are deviating a lot of your technical resources for the sake of the race. You need a return because if you don’t have a return then you are going to dedicate all of these resources developing something else."

The World Championship winning 2006 Renault R26

As the Formula 1 related questions drew to a close, the attention turned to a definitive verdict on Renault’s future in the sport. As well as reinforcing the notion of finishing their various contracts, Ghosn states that the answer to whether or not the French engine supplier will continue in its current guise or become its own constructor will become clear very soon. “You will not have to wait a long time before we give you a very clear answer on Formula 1.”

But if I was to read into his wry smile and the tone of the interview then I would speculate that Renault’s days in Formula 1 are fast drawing to a close, for now at least.