Renault boss calls for change of culture

Caubet does not believe Renault should take the team entirely back in-house - as its original Formula 1 squad had been in the early 1980s - but reckoned too much freedom had been given to the former Benetton team that has run Renault since its return to the sport as a constructor seven years ago.

"The team must rediscover the Renault culture," said Caubet.

"We don't want to return to ways of the 1980s when Renault corporate controlled the team. But we don't want to make the same mistakes that have come about by letting the team have 100 per cent autonomy."

He said that there was no immediate hurry to install a new management regime in the Renault team, which he is currently running alongside former technical director Bob Bell.

"There is no brief for finding a team principal and I have no comment to make on the names that have been put forward," Caubet said. "We will look for someone when the responsibilities of the role have been finalised. That could be in December or in January.

"Paradoxically, we don't have a problem in the short term, but in the long term because the team principal has to look to the long term."

Caubet added that the main focus was now on getting Renault back on the pace, and solving the financial shortfall created by the loss of sponsors such as ING, which terminated its agreement with the team yesterday - although the Dutch banking company had already announced it would pull out after 2009.

"Clearly the team has been through a painful and humiliating shock, but we continue racing and have two main objectives: performance and financing," said Caubet.

"We will continue to improve the car until the end of the year, but our main efforts are now going into the 2010 car. That project is already well advanced and there will be a significant technical evolution.

"The current climate is very difficult for sponsors. Despite the significant reductions in costs, sponsors will not be able to fund the team's 2010 budget to the same level as 2009. We must therefore look for new financing methods. We could not do anything until we knew the outcome of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, but now we can resume our search."