The Renault Formula One team first raced in F1 as a team in 1977, although as an engine supplier Renault's involvement in motorsport dates back longer, Renault left F1 at the end of 1985 to return again in 2002. Throughout, it has often raced under different names, currently Lotus Renault GP and previously winning the Constructors' and Drivers' championships branded as Benetton. In a real sense the Renault team of 2011 is not really 'Renault', - Renault cars sold all their stake in the company to Genii Capital investment company who are aligned Group Lotus, hence the name change to Lotus Renault GP. Despite the obvious French connections, the team operates from the U.K. and the engines are manufactured from the Renault's facility at Viry-Châtillon near Paris.

(Renault has supplied engines to other teams that has contributed to six Driver's world championships; 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2010, and seven Constructors' world championships; 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2010).


Renault Facts and Stats

Base:	Enstone, Oxfordshire, U.K.
Team Principal:	Eric Boullier
Technical Chief:	James Allison
Drivers:	Nick Heidfeld (No. 9)
	Vitaly Petrov (No. 10)
Chassis:	Renault R31
Engine:	Renault RS27 - 2011
Tyres:	Pirelli
First Season:	1950
Constructor Championships:	2	2005, 2006
Driver Championships:	2	Fernando Alonso (05, 06),

Renault sport first entered F1 in 1977, driver Jean-Pierre Jabouille competing in the last five races of the season. It was an inauspicious start, the car was powered by the first Turbo charged engine regularly used in F1, and although powerful, was unreliable, and the team failed to finish any race in 1977.  The 1978 season was once again plagued by poor reliability; nevertheless, at Watkins Glen the car finished a race on the lead lap in fourth place scoring the teams first F1 points.

Rene Arnoux joined the driver line-up for the 1979 season. In the early season races the team continued to struggle, the only high point was Jean-Pierre Jabouille securing a pole in South Africa. The team introduced a new RS10 'ground effect' car mid-season and the effects were soon apparent. At the French GP Jabouille and Arnoux qualified on the front row and went on to record a one two finish.  Jabouille was the first driver to win in a turbo powered car, and Arnoux was involved in a classic race struggle with Gilles Villeneuve, who just beat him for the second place. Jabouille struggled for the rest of the season, but Arnoux claimed two more second places, at the British GP and at Watkins Glen.

The team had more glimpses of success in 1980 with Arnoux winning in Brazil and South Africa. Jabouille struggled more than his teammate, but in his only point scoring finish of the season, he did win the Austrian GP. Regrettably, at the Canadian GP Jean-Pierre Jabouille had a bad accident that resulted in him sustaining serious leg injuries that were to end his career.

In 1981 Alain Prost joined Renault. Prost was to become one of the great F1 drivers winning four Championships (1985, 1986, 1989 and 1993). He was to have an immediate impact on the team; he was quicker than his more experienced countryman Rene Arnoux, and the two did not get along. Prost was involved in accidents in the first two races of the season, but in Argentina he finished on the podium. Four frustrating retirements followed and then he won his first GP, appropriately in France, and then won two more races and claimed his first pole in German GP. Prost ended the season in fifth place in the Drivers' championship just seven points behind champion Nelson Piquet. The team finished third in the Constructors'.

Arnoux stayed with Renault for the 1982 season and he won two races, however, his relationship with Prost deteriorated further after the French GP that Arnoux won.  Prost believes that Arnoux went back on a pre-race agreement to support him during the race. Prost had to retire from seven races but he won in Brazil and South Africa and finished in the points in four more races, to end the season in fourth place in the championship. Once again, the team finished in third in the constructors' championship.

Eddie Cheever replaced Arnoux for the 1983 season, and Prost continued to push hard for his first championship, winning four races but ending the season in second place just two points off the winner Nelson Piquet. Brabham BMW just beat Renault into second place in the Constructors'. Despite the improvements, Prost and the team management were increasingly at odds, Prost arguing that he was being blamed for the teams failings to secure the championship, when he felt the team were too conservative in developing the car.

Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick replaced prost and Cheever for the 1984 season. The season was for both drivers very mixed; Warwick finished on the podium on four occasions but had ten retirements, and Tombay had one podium and eight retirements. The team finished off the pace in fifth place, even worse was to follow in 1985 with just two podium finishes by Tombay and 14 retirements by the drivers combined. The team finished in seventh place with other teams running Renault engines outperforming the team.

Renault was in financial trouble in 1985, and they withdraw from entering a fully-fledged racing team in 1986. Renault did supply engines in 1986, but withdraw entirely until 1989 when they agreed to supply engines to Williams. Teams running Renault engines won the Constructors' title in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997. At the end of 1997 Renault ceased once again to supply engines to F1 teams. (From 2007, Renault engines once again were supplier to other teams and Red Bull racing won the 2010 championship with a Renault engine powering Vettel to Victory).

Renault F1 returned to F1 in 2000 by purchasing Benetton F1. However, they did not rebrand the team to Renault until the 2002 season. In the Benetton branded Renault owned team of 2000 Giancarlo Fisichella and Alexander Wurz did reasonably well, Fisichella finishing on the podium three times to finish in sixth place in the championship. The team finished in fourth in the Constructors but were hugely off the points total of McLaren and Ferrari. In 2001 Jenson Button replaced Wurz, the team faired less well ending in seventh place in the Constructors, with just one podium finish for Fisichella.

In 2002, Renault began racing again under its own brand name, Jenson Button remained with the team, joined by Jarno Trulli. Button ended the season in seventh place and Trulli a few points behind in eighth. Renault was fourth in the constructors' but a long way behind the top three teams.  2002 was significant because a young and very exciting Spanish driving prospect had joined the team as a test driver, Fernando Alonso. Button was dropped by Renault for 2003 to be replaced by Alonso, who had greatly impressed as a test driver.

Alonso soon established himself as the number one driver at Renault; he was on the podium four times in the season including winning his first race - the Hungarian GP. (It was Renault's first win since the 1983 Austrian GP). Trulli secured one podium finish, and ended the season two places behind Alonso in eighth place. The team was once again fourth in the constructors' but had significantly narrowed the points gap to the top three teams.  The improvements in performance continued into the 2004 season, Alonso was on the podium four times and Trulli twice including winning the Monaco GP.

The team's relationship with Fernando Alonso was as ever strong, but Trulli was vocal in his thoughts that the team were showing great favouritism towards Alonso to his [Trulli's] determent. The team at that time was run by the flamboyant Flavio Briatore, who became increasingly frustrated with Trulli's performance on the track, particularly at the French GP where Trulli was overtaken by Rubens Barrichello in the final stages of the last lap. Trulli was running in third and if he had held Barrichello off would have secured Renault a two three finish in front of a patriotic French crowd.  Trulli left the team with three races of the season remaining to be replaced by former world drivers' champion Jacques Villeneuve. Villeneuve was unable to add to the team's point standing and Renault ended the season in a competitive third place.

The 2005 season was a triumph for Renault and Fernando Alonso, winning both the constructors' and drivers' championships. Giancarlo Fisichella re-joined the team and was immediately successful winning in wet conditions the season opening GP in Australia. Alonso won the next three races in Malaysia, Bahrain and San Marino. Kimi Raikkonen at McLaren was also having a good season, and by scoring a one two at the Brazilian GP with two races of the season remaining McLaren were leading in the constructors championship.  Nevertheless, Alonso's third place finish in Brazil secured him the world drivers' championship. (By season end, he had won seven races and was on the podium in eight other races). At the time Alonso was the youngest winner of the title, a record subsequently beaten by first Lewis Hamilton and then Sebastian Vettel.  Fisichella was second and Alonso third in the penultimate race in Japan, and a win for Alonso and a fourth place for Fisichello in the final race in China secured Renault the Constructors world championship.

The wonderful 2005 results for Renault and Fernando Alonso were repeated in 2006. Alonso won six of the opening nine races in the season, including his home Spanish GP and Monaco (He was second in the other three races). In Malaysia (race two of the season) Fisichella won the race with Alonso second to claim Renault's first one two finish since René Arnoux and Alain Prost in 1982.

In the second half of the season, Schumacher challenged Alonso's dominance; at several circuits Ferrari had a performance advantage over Renault. In the last nine races of the season, Alonso won once to Schumacher's five wins, however with four second place finishes Alonso was able to secure his second and consecutive F1 drivers' championship. With Schumacher and Massa finishing second and third in the championship the Constructors' title was very close with Renault securing the championship by just a five-point margin.

Fernando Alonso left the team at the end of the 2006 season and was replaced by Heikki Kovalainen for 2007 driving alongside Giancarlo Fisichella. The season was highly controversial; McLaren were accused and found guilty by the FIA of spying on Ferrari, they were disqualified from the constructors' championship and received a huge fine. Renault was also accused by the FIA of having McLaren technical information in their possession. The offence was the same as McLaren's earlier in the year. Renault was found guilty but were not punished, fearing perhaps that the manufacturer would leave if they received the same treatment as McLaren.  

On the track the team struggled to impress, Kovalainen securing just one podium finish, a second at the Japanese GP. A seventh and eighth in the drivers' championship was disappointing for the holders of the constructors title and a third place promotion from fourth due to McLaren's disqualification masked the huge point differential of the top teams. It surprised few when the team announced a new driver line-up for 2008.

Fernando Alonso had fallen-out with McLaren and re-joined Renault for 2008 and the 2007 test driver Nelson Piquet Jr. was promoted to the second car. 

Actions taken by members of the Renault team and Nelson Piquet Jr. in 2008 were, when they became known in 2009, brought the team and sport to crisis and disgraced those involved and besmirched F1.

Alonso's return did not result in wondrous success on the track, however towards the end of the season he had three podium finishes in the last four races, such included winning in Singapore at the first F1 night race. He ended the season in fifth place in the championship, with Piquet off the pace for most of the season resulting in a twelfth place finish; the team were a modest fourth in the constructors' championship. 

The 2009 season was overshadowed by controversy. Nelson Piquet Jr. was not performing as well as hoped and the team sacked him in August. Allegations then surfaced that he [Piquet] had crashed deliberately at the 2008 Singapore GP in order to advantage his teammate Fernando Alonso. The FIA launched an investigation, and initially most pundits and fans felt the allegations could not possibly be true, however, Piquet stated that he was instructed to stage a crash by Renault team principal Flavio Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds, and that the crash was designed to bring out the safety car to advantage teammate Fernando Alonso. [Alonso did win the race but was not accused by any party that he was involved or knew of the conspiracy].  Initially, most assumed that Piquet was trying to cause embarrassment and that Briatore and Symonds could not possibly have sanctioned such a terrible breach of conduct. Indeed immediately after the claims were made, Renault and Briatore stated they would take legal action against Piquet, Jr. for making false allegations. The F1 world was shocked when Renault announced just before the hearing that the 'Team will not dispute the recent allegations, [and] ... Briatore and Symonds had left the team'.

The FIA imposed suspended sanctions, fearing perhaps, Renault would leave the sport if the fines were too punitive. Nevertheless, it was a very sad incident and undermined the integrity of the sport in the eyes of many.

On track the 2009 season was poor for Renault, Alonso managed just one podium - a third in Singapore, but Piquet and his replacement Romain Grosjean failed to finish in the points for the entire season. Renault slumped to eighth in the Constructors' and Alonso was a dispiriting ninth. It surprised few that Fernando Alonso announced towards the end of the season that he would be driving for Ferrari in 2010.

The experienced and much respected Robert Kubica joined Renault for the 2010 season his teammate was Vitaly Petrov. Petrov was the first formula one driver from Russia, and his entry foreshadowed F1's agreed expansion into Russia in 2012.

Renault significantly also sold a 25% holding in the team to a Luxembourg based investment company, Genii Capital.

The 2010 pre-season discussion was dominated by the big four teams; Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull. The season itself developed into a fabulous battle between three teams, Mercedes were of the pace. It was hard for drivers from outside of the 'big four' to be noticed. Nevertheless, Kubica was to demonstrate that he was certainly fast, even if his car was not a match of his exalted opponents. (Petrov was also much commented upon, although not always in a positive light).

The team were somewhat disappointing at the season opener in Bahrain, an early retirement for Petrov and a mediocre eleventh for Kubica. In Australia, Kubica drove with great commitment to finish in an impressive second place, his teammate retired again as his did at the next race in Malaysia whereas Kubica was once again on good form in fourth. The team achieved very few double points finishes; the first being the Chinese GP, - Kubica crossed the line in fifth and Petrov in seventh. This was Petrov's first F1 finish and if he had not spun whilst in fourth he would surely have finished further up the pack. An eighth place for Kubica in Spain ensured he had four point finishes in five races. Kubica's performance at Monaco was startling; producing the fastest time in Saturday's practice and then qualifying on the front of the grid in second place. He was unable to hold off the charging Red Bulls but finished in a magnificent third place, besting the Ferrari's, McLaren's and Mercedes.

Kubica finished in the points in the next three races and was consistently beating a number of his rivals in faster cars. Retirements in Britain and Hungary interspersed with a seventh in Germany dented his record, and allowed Petrov to score his only victory over his teammate at the Hungarian GP.  Petrov had a great weekend out qualifying Kubica and finishing in a credible fifth place.  At the Belgium GP the team had their third finish of the season with both drivers finishing in the points; Kubica had his third podium of the season and Petrov battled from a 23rd place on the starting grid (due to crashing in qualifying) to a fantastic ninth. (Petrov had finished in tenth at Germany to claim a second duel drivers' points finish of the season). Kubica finished in the points in all but one of the seasons last six races, a retirement in Japan spoiling the run of great form.  Petrov managed just a one points finish, at Abu Dhabi where he held up the Championship contesting Fernando Alonso to claim sixth place. Kubica finished the season in a creditable eight place, and the team in fifth place, very much leading the best of the rest.

Renault have scaled back involvement in F1 for 2011, the manufacturer will continue to supply engines but Renault sold its remaining shareholding in Renault F1 to  Genii Capital who then agreed to purchase 25% of Lotus cars. Consequently, the team will race under the name of Lotus Renault GP. It may be a little confusing, as the team will be racing against another team using the Lotus name. The team which raced in the 2010 season as Lotus Racing (using a licence from Group Lotus which was later terminated by Group Lotus) has rebranded itself as Team Lotus for the 2011 season after purchasing the privately-owned rights to the historic name.

Petrov will continue to race for the team in 2011. Robert Kubica was expected by many to have a great 2011 with Renault. Regrettably, Kubica had a very serious Rally car accident prior to the season and his injuries suffered required the team to seek a replacement. Nick Heidfeld performed well in pre-season testing, and has taken Kubica's place in the team.

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