Renault to quit F1 ?

GiftGrub100

On BBC website tonight

Renault have held an emergency board meeting in Paris to discuss pulling out of Formula 1 with immediate effect.
The French car company was considering whether to remain in the sport with its own team, switch to simply being an engine supplier or quit altogether.
The outcome of Wednesday's meeting was not immediately forthcoming.
News of Renault's possible exit comes on the day Toyota said it was quitting F1, becoming the third car company to leave the sport in the last 11 months.
Renault's emergency board meeting was attended by F1 team bosses Bob Bell and Jean-Francois Caubet, although neither man was allowed to take part in the debate about the team's future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8343221.stm

Cookie_Monster

Why would they have signed Kubica then...

Edit: Are Renault not a lot more heavily involved in the lower formulae then Toyota too, surely its more beneficial for them to stay

GiftGrub100

I know they have signed Kubica but Toyota had offered KIMI megabucks to drive from them next year.

vectra

Kubica's Management are panicking to try to get in touch with McLaren

kaizersoze

Didn't they just sign a new sponsorship deal with some watch maker for next year as well?

EvilMonkey

And a new engine deal with Red Bull. I hope they don't pull out we already have a major question mark over the 4 new teams and if they will make it to the grid or if they have the cash to survive a season. I'm not too confident of the Fia's selection criteria.

I wonder if the Fia had allowed the new teams with Toyota or BMW or Renault engine deals instead would F1 be in this position now?

thegoth

EvilMonkey wrote: »

And a new engine deal with Red Bull. I hope they don't pull out we already have a major question mark over the 4 new teams and if they will make it to the grid or if they have the cash to survive a season. I'm not too confident of the Fia's selection criteria.

Are you sure RedBull have signed a contract with Renault for next year ? I dont think they have. They are doing their best to go with Merc power plants.

EvilMonkey wrote: »

I wonder if the Fia had allowed the new teams with Toyota or BMW or Renault engine deals instead would F1 be in this position now?

Yes. I think so. The manufacturers wouldnt have made much money out of it. They would have had to price their engines cheaply. Cosworth need 3 or 4 teams to make the business viable. I'd say Cosworth are making a few million a year profit at most. This would be nothing to BMW, Renault or Toyota. Probaly half the catering budget. If that

EvilMonkey

thegoth wrote: »

Are you sure RedBull have signed a contract with Renault for next year ? I dont think they have. They are doing their best to go with Merc power plants.

Yes McLaren blocked a deal with merc

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091102115313.shtml

Yes. I think so. The manufacturers wouldnt have made much money out of it. They would have had to price their engines cheaply. Cosworth need 3 or 4 teams to make the business viable. I'd say Cosworth are making a few million a year profit at most. This would be nothing to BMW, Renault or Toyota. Probaly half the catering budget. If that

I don't think its about the money so much as having their badge/name on a few cars other than their own.

Iron Hide

Wonder why Red Bull didn't speak to Ferrari about engines for next season, Reliable powerplant and no customers confirmed for next year...

Cookie_Monster

Red Storm wrote: »

Wonder why Red Bull didn't speak to Ferrari about engines for next season, Reliable powerplant and no customers confirmed for next year...

Because Ferrari do not want good team to have the same engine as them. They will have no problem giving it to crap teams who will not challenge them I imagine...

Iron Hide

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Because Ferrari do not want good team to have the same engine as them. They will have no problem giving it to crap teams who will not challenge them I imagine...

Begs the question why they supplied Toro Rosso for a few years, good season in 2008, and their 2009 car was an RB5 with a different paintjob...

Ghost Train

hope we don't end up up with a series where all the teams use the same engine, if renault quits it will be a bad knock for the sport

Cookie_Monster

Red Storm wrote: »

Begs the question why they supplied Toro Rosso for a few years, good season in 2008, and their 2009 car was an RB5 with a different paintjob...

no it doesn't TR were and are still pretty crap

dcr22B

Brilliant, another nail in the coffin of Formula Yawn.

In an ideal world, we'd have Toyota, BMW and Renault coming to do the WRC in an Auris, 1 Series / Mini and Megane respectively.

vincenzolorenzo

dcr22B wrote: »

Brilliant, another nail in the coffin of Formula Yawn.

In an ideal world, we'd have Toyota, BMW and Renault coming to do the WRC in an Auris, 1 Series / Mini and Megane respectively.

Oh there's a surprise. Another rally fan whingin about F1.

Yawn.

dcr22B

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

Oh there's a surprise. Another rally fan whingin about F1.

Yawn.

I'm not whinging, believe me you'd know if I was.

All of F1's corruption and scandals are coming home to roost and the manufacturers realise that it's just not beneficial for them from a business point of view to continue to be involved in F1. The only car company that benefits from their involvement in F1 is Ferrari if the truth be told.

kaizersoze

Shooting down speculation to the contrary, Renault's F1 managing director Jean-Francois Caubet insists a working budget for 2010 has been approved and the team will race in Formula One next year.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091105092339.shtml

Re Bull have already confirmed they're staying with Renault...

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091102115313.shtml

Ghost Train

kaizersoze wrote: »

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091105092339.shtml

Re Bull have already confirmed they're staying with Renault...

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091102115313.shtml

Well thats good to hear

thegoth

EvilMonkey wrote: »

Yes McLaren blocked a deal with merc

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/091102115313.shtml



I don't think its about the money so much as having their badge/name on a few cars other than their own.

I dont think having their badge on a back marker team, or a team that may beat the works outfit would have kept Toyota in play

EvilMonkey

thegoth wrote: »

I dont think having their badge on a back marker team, or a team that may beat the works outfit would have kept Toyota in play

No but it wouldn't hurt.

What sent them over the edge was when they finally offered Trulli an extension he turned them down

I didn't think Renault would quit there one manufacture that actually uses regularly their F1 team for marketing with the F1 road show and I think they would have gone after the court case if they were going.

Cookie_Monster

Maybe not so good...

Indo story

Ferrari claimed on Wednesday night that Formula One’s rulers were waging war on the manufacturers as Renault prepared to join Toyota in quitting the sport.

The Ferrari outburst, on their official website, came on a day in which the FIA, world motor sport’s governing body, said it was “concerned” by the sudden manner in which Toyota quit F1 on Wednesday and came amid increasing speculation that Renault might follow suit.

“Toyota’s decision comes just weeks after its F1 team signed the new Concorde Agreement until 2012,” read an FIA statement. “Urgent clarification is being sought from the Toyota F1 team as to its legal position in relation to the championship.”

In an emotional press conference in Tokyo, at which Toyota team principal Tadashi Yamashina broke down in tears, the manufacturer blamed the “current severe economic realities” as the reason for its abrupt exit.

However, Ferrari suggested that the withdrawal of Honda, BMW, Bridgestone and now Toyota is due to the actions of the sport’s rulers and that the new four new teams in line to take their place are not of the same calibre.

“In reality, the steady trickle of desertion is more the result of a war against the big car manufacturers,” the Ferrari statement said. “Formula One continues losing important parts. In exchange, if one could call it that, Manor, Lotus, USF1 and Campos Meta arrived.

“You might say ‘same-same’, because it is enough if there are participants. But that’s not entirely true, and then we’ve got to see if next year we’ll be really as many in Bahrain for the first starting grid of the 2010 season.”

The controversy erupted as Renault’s board met in Paris last night for an extraordinary meeting at which the subject of its own involvement in F1 was discussed.

It is unlikely that the French manufacturer will announce anything on Thursday as it has an important PR event.

However, it is entirely possible Renault will decide to quit a sport in which it had its least competitive season since 2001, one in which it was drawn into the hugely damaging race-fixing scandal that saw team principal Flavio Briatore and director of engineering Pat Symonds banned from the sport.

The Renault team also received a ban, suspended for two years, as punishment.

However, the FIA’s leniency on that occasion is believed to have been partly down to assurances from Renault that it would stay in the sport. They recently signed Robert Kubica to replace lead driver Fernando Alonso, strongly indicating they will compete in 2010.

It is understood that the French manufacturer may try to sell the team in the manner that Honda did to Ross Brawn last winter. A deal with Briatore had been mooted before the Italian was banned and no doubt there would be other interested buyers.

thegoth

EvilMonkey wrote: »

No but it wouldn't hurt.

What sent them over the edge was when they finally offered Trulli an extension he turned them down

I didn't think Renault would quit there one manufacture that actually uses regularly their F1 team for marketing with the F1 road show and I think they would have gone after the court case if they were going.

It could definitely hurt. Imagine if Toyota supplied one of the new teams or Force India with engines, and the works Toyota team was beaten by them !! What messages would that send to the world about Toyotas engineering ability ?

EvilMonkey

thegoth wrote: »

It could definitely hurt. Imagine if Toyota supplied one of the new teams or Force India with engines, and the works Toyota team was beaten by them !! What messages would that send to the world about Toyotas engineering ability ?

This is exactly what the problem is people expect the manufactures to come ahead of privateers, so they spend the big bucks to make sure people don't think less of their brand because there been bet by a competitor.
It would say that Force India built a better car than them in a highly competitive environment and their teem needs to do a better job next year.
In F1 all teams should be treated as equals, why should we have higher expectation for manufactures when they haven't been earned on the track? Would it not be better to be bet by your own engine than someone else's?

thegoth

If Force India produced a better car than Toyota next year and were running the same engines, it would be HUGELY embarrassing for Toyota. Why

1) They are a world wide brand and can attract much better engineers that Force India with because of this and the pay they can offer

2) Toyota have much better facilities such as wind tunnel, CFD,

3) Toyota have much more staff

With all these advantages, if they were out done by a MUCH smaller team, never mind if this happened two years in a row, then the board would go into orbit with rage, and in my opinion, rightfully so

Fabio

Don't see why Toyota don't consider staying as an engine supplier with a team using their racing subsidary TRD (Toyota Racing Development). The team would have to pay for the engine, thus reducing the costs massively ala Mugen Honda a few years back...