On the same day as Toyota revealed its withdrawal from F1, and just a day after Bridgestone announced that it would not be renewing its tyre-supply contract post-2010, it has emerged that Renault too is deliberating its future in the sport – as an emergency board meeting has been called in Paris.
According to the BBC, the purpose of the hastily-convened reunion is to decide whether to honour Renault’s commitment to the Concorde Agreement in staying put until at least 2012, remain involved but only as an engine-supplier or, most drastically of all, walk away completely – what many had surmised would happen even before the ‘Singapore-gate’ race-fixing scandal that dragged the French company’s name so publicly and negatively through the mud.
Confirmation of the decision is not expected to come today (Wednesday), as president Carlos Ghosn is due to promote the car maker’s zero-emissions policy during a special publicity event on Thursday, but should Renault F1 indeed cease to exist, it would become the fourth automotive manufacturer – and fifth major manufacturer in general, including Bridgestone – to pull out in the space of less than a year, after Honda suddenly and unexpectedly pulled the plug on what is now Brawn GP last December, and BMW and Toyota followed suit at the end of the recently-completed campaign.
The BBC states that whilst both acting team principal Bob Bell and managing director Jean-François Caubet will be present at the meeting, they will have no say in its outcome – following what has been the Enstone-based outfit’s least competitive season at the highest level since 2001, finishing a lowly eighth in the final constructors’ standings with a grand total of just 26 points, all scored by double F1 World Champion Fernando Alonso.
The campaign has also been dogged by controversy and humiliation, and the departure in disgrace of former managing director Flavio Briatore and executive director of engineering Pat Symonds, both of whom have since been banned from the sport entirely for having ordered Nelsinho Piquet to deliberately crash out of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix in order to enable team-mate Alonso to triumph in F1’s inaugural night race from a disadvantaged grid position following an engine failure in qualifying.
It is not known what would happen to Robert Kubica should Renault walk away, after the highly-rated BMW-Sauber refugee signed to replace the Ferrari-bound Alonso in 2010.
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Renault should stay as an engine supplier,after all,they developed the air operated valve train whih allows these engines to rev astronomically..............
had a thought if Mr Toady is Viva ing French GP will he now be Viva ing Renut? and what if Mr Toady has no FGP adn no REnut?
If Renault wnat to leave, whether they have signed the agreement or not, let them,.
F1 does not needs cheating teams like them...........
F1 will be a better place WITHOUT them............
Bring on the privateers, Toyota and $300 mil couldn't win, yet Brawn comes out and wins the constructors campionship.
all the teams, minus bmw sauber, signed the concorde agreement pledging their intention, and being legally bound, to race until the 2012 season. screw any team that now wants out of f1 now. should have thought of that like bmw sauber. now shut up and get ready for the 2010 season!
It's a good week for JT to start eh?
Private teams are a bore. IRL of europe.
Not a single manufacturer should return until they get a ROI. The manufacturer's should be the only ones making huge $ from F1.
fair enough, but without major manufacturers f1 will be just like gp2...good racing with no reason to follow it. soon f1 will be gp2 only instead of renault engines they will have cosworth engines.
ok year 1 wasnt all private teams i accept that but richard sugested that if left to private teams the sport would collapse which is utter nonesense as manufacturers have come and gone but the private teams have been backbone of the sport and the most sucsessfull
excuse the spelling
motogp is no more entertaining than f1 as far as passing goes. the malyasian gp was terrible...stoner wins by 15 seconds, pedrosa 5 seconds ahead of rossi, rossi 6 seconds ahead of lorenzo. formula 1 and motogp each have a couple good battles for position. some races are good, some are boring...thats the way it is.
f1 wasnt started from 'pathetic private teams'
Who will be next to leave F1 and blame it on the credit crunch,instead of just saying we are @#$%!!!!Come to Moto Gp for proper racing and more over-taking than you can shake a stick at.Give it a go this Sunday you won't regret it.B...
mclaren, williams 2 of most sucesfull jordan, prost, stewart, force india, bar, red bull , brawn, toro rosso tyrell jps, brabham must i go on
1950...the first year of f1...teams included: alfa romeo spa, scuderia ferrari, officine alfieri maserati, automobiles talbot-darracq, english racing automobiles, etc. i would not call them 'pathetic private teams.'
I give some of the new private teams six months and they will run to the hills skint.
it was all these pathetic private teams ( richard no brains) that f1 started from
you cant leave f1...you signed the concorde agreement. your stupid decision, now live with it.
Don't worry amigo Lotus and the team that Bruno Senna has been signed to drive for will coming next year so F1 should still be interesting! plus next year promises to be exciting with Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vetal, Mark Webber Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Massa will be battling it out on track so GAME ON BOYS!;-) I feel sorry for the guy who replaced Glock though as he drove a very good race!:-( lets hope he gets signed for another team.:-)
If they had had some reliable employees none of this would have happened to Renault.
I wonder what Mystery Witness X thinks ? Probably just as well he jumped ship to Ferrari when the chance came his way, not that signing for Ferrari will do him any good it will take at least a decade for Mr Todt to rescue Ferrari from the quagmire of bad decision making :-)
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