One of motor racing’s historical names, Renault, has had an up-and-down history. The good news is that leadership from De Meo and Rossi has it ‘up’ again.
Besides Ferrari and McLaren (two of the longest-serving Formula 1 operations in history), another company with a long history also bears consideration. It began as a works manufacturer, then became an engine contributor, and after doing the same process twice more, it’s a wonder how this team still exists.
The Renault company has made more transitions than anyone in the F1 field.
But then a withdrawal from F1 came out of nowhere, and the company became an engine supplier, winning with both the Williams and Benetton teams. Later, Renault returned as a full works team for the second time, winning titles with Fernando Alonso in 2005 and 2006. Alonso left a year later, but he returned following a confrontation with Lewis Hamilton at McLaren.
Then came the controversial race in 2008 in Singapore. With Nelson Piquet Jr. on the team, the idea was to have the Brazilian purposely crash, allowing Alonso to win the race, which the Spaniard did. But the following year, Piquet Jr. was dropped by the team in favor of a young Frenchman named Romain Grosjean. Piquet Jr., in his revenge, spilled the information on what happened in Singapore, and both Team Manager Flavio Briatore and his Technical Director Pat Symonds were kicked out of F1–Briatore permanently–and sponsors began to fall by the wayside.
Alonso left for Ferrari the following season, and the second engine contract began, with Lotus as the primary sponsor. The team achieved success during 2010-2016. The main event came when Kimi Raikkonen won the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi. Then, with Carlos Ghosn as the head of operations, Renault decided in 2016 to put another chance at a works team.
A few podiums occurred going into the 2020 season, but then the news came that Ghosn was accused of a crime in Japan and was being tried there. An escape with the assistance of friends smuggled him out of Japan, and he ended up in Lebanon. This fugitive type of event made Renault fire him and the staff at the company. That came when Renault was suffering (like so many others) because of COVID-19, and it began thinking about pulling the plug on F1.
Enter Luca De Meo, the Italian who would now serve as the head of Renault. Together with others involved, he coordinated a “Renaultution,” which divided the company to produce electric cars for the future. The Renault part was called E-tech, which for F1, the engines were manufactured (again). The second part of the three was Dacia, the SUV section of Renault.
De Meo, a race fan, did not want to cancel the F1 team or the WEC squad, so he brought Renault’s minimal Alpine sports car division to become the racing team. He changed the car color from Yellow and Black to Red, White, and Blue with shades of Black. Alpine now would head all types of racing, which made Renault Sport Racing barely existent.
The good news is that Alpine has succeeded with Esteban Ocon winning in Hungary. Alonso, now back for the third time, is improving his form after getting off to a slow beginning this season.
So, will Renault make an engine for this supercar? Or will they, as they famously do, cut the program? According to Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi, the decision will be made at the end of the year. Knowing that French rival Peugeot will be entering the WEC in 2022, it seems possible, even though its 100th anniversary will come at Lemans a year later.
It hasn’t been easy and certainly not straightforward, but with vision and fortitude, Renault’s Luca De Meo and Alpine’s Laurent Rossi just might have saved what many analysts saw as a sinking French ship.
