It’s clear that the Renault Sport brand is a key part of the marketing strategy as the company tries to link F1 and other racing programs to its high performance road cars.
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Chairman and CEO of Renault Carlos Ghosn says he doesn’t expect the team to be competitive this season but has laid down the challenge to be victorious in F1. Renault Sport Cars will focus on the development and commercialisation of the Renault Sport auto portfolio, delivering cars such as the Nurburgring-conquering Renault Mégane R.S.
In an impressive first season, they took the teams’ championship title, whilst narrowly missing out on the drivers’ championship with Sebastien Buemi by just one point.
Renault has launched its new Formula One team at its headquarters outside Paris, returning to the sport as a full constructor.
The Renault team also took the opportunity to confirm its driver line-up for the 2016 season.
“The works team is Renault, obviously, so we will design and specific the engine for the Renault team and they will have exactly the same”.
He will report to Cyril Abiteboul, who remains as Managing Director having endured an unsavoury couple of years which included last season’s public fallout with Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz and team boss Christian Horner.
The RS16 will be piloted by former reserve driver and F1 debutant Jolyon Palmer, as well as Dane Kevin Magnussen following the termination of Pastor Maldonado’s deal in January. Bob Bell is appointed F1 Chief Technical Officer and will manage the efforts of Nick Chester as Chassis Technical Director and Remi Taffin as Engine Technical Director.
Look closely though, and you’ll notice that the brand has a few new sponsors – one in particular, being Infiniti.
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The F1 cars’ chassis will continue to be created at Renault’s United Kingdom base in Enstone, while the engines will be developed at the company’s home headquarters of Viry-Chatillon, with a new program by Nissan partner Infiniti to “enhance” its second generation of energy recovery systems (ERS). Renault will continue its working relationship with Gravity Motorsports, an affiliate of the Genii Capital Group, which will retain a minority shareholding in the F1 team.
