writen by Joe Saward
I find it slightly worrying that Renault F1 has yet to confirm its second driver, despite indications that the job would be going to former Toyota driver Timo Glock. Given the strength of those rumours at the time there must be some sort of spanner in the works but I have yet to discover what this may be. Here are some thoughts that I wrote over the weekend for The Business of Motorsport newsletter… I am not saying it is true, but it makes a lot of sense.
“Some see the problem being that Renault will soon announce its intention to withdraw from Formula 1. Others feel that Renault boss Carlos Ghosn is more creative than his counterparts at Toyota and BMW and that he will use the team in a different way. There has been talk of selling a percentage to an outside investor but Ghosn knows that it would not be wise to sell to just anyone and that it would better if any shares went to a French company, if possible from within the orbit of the French government. The obvious choice would be Renault’s traditional partner Total (which includes the Elf and Fina brands). Total has the money to refinance the F1 team and would no doubt be happy to extend an already very close relationship. The urge for the team would presumbly be to make it more French now that its longtime dalliance with Flavio Briatore is over. It is also a good time for a complete rebranding as Briatore’s race-fixing adventures have done Renault a fair amount of damage and a new look is not a bad idea.
So the idea of making the team more French and rebranding it is a good option. Finding a French driver is a bit of a problem given that Sebastien Bourdais and Romain Grosjean have both been deeply disappointing. The team is due to test Bertrand Baguette in December but despite his joyously French name he is, in fact, a Belgian, although his Renault World Series title is a good qualification for F1. Other men who might be considered would be Jules Bianchi, the Formula 3 Eurocup champion, who is signed for the ART team in GP2 next year and probably wants a little more time to build up his experience before moving into F1. There is also Charles Pic, a wealthy and talented youngster, who was third in the World Series but he seems to be heading to GP2 as well.
Given the paucity of sponsorship in France in recent years many of the most talented drivers have gone aboard and there are various exiles who might be worth considering, including former Renault tester Franck Montagny (31) and Simon Pagenaud (25), who have both been active in the United States. There are also Formula Nippon Champion Loic Duval (27) who has been in Japan for four years, and Benoit Treluyer (32), who went to Japan 10 years ago and has since won the local Formula 3 (2001), Formula Nippon (2006) and Super GT (2008) titles. This year he finished runner-up to Duval.
Now this is all probably rather speculative but it is nonetheless interesting to see that last week Renault relaunched its Gordini brand, making the point (over and over, I thought) that the new range of cars that will result will be painted up in the celebrated French racing blue with two white stripes as used to be seen in the 1950s when Amedee Gordini ran cars in the World Championship. That all came to an end in the late 1950s when he gave up the struggle and became a Renault consultant, developing the Renault 8 for racing and rallying, which resulted in the Coupe Gordini series in 1966 where many of the top French drivers and the 1970s learned their trade. At the end of 1968 the Gordini company was merged into Renault and in February 1969 the staff were moved to Viry-Chatillon where many of his staff became key players in the Renault Sport adventures of the 1970s and 1980s. The factory at Viry-Chatillon is named after him.
French racing blue has not been seen in F1 since the Ligier days in the early 1990s, although Prost went on running darker blue cars until he went bust.
According to the Renault-Gordini announcement last week, the French blue with white stripes “contributed to an eternal identity that is an important part of Renault’s sporting heritage” and in a few months new Gordini-labeled cars will help to strengthen the Renault sporting image. Renault is also promising a “Christmas in Blue” exhibition at the L’Atelier Renault on the Champs Elysées in Paris.
Could it be that Ghosn is planning to relaunch a Renault-Gordini F1 team in blue?
Tags: English by benoit
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