Why French interest in F1 seems secure despite Renault’s looming absence

A challenging year for the Alpine team has been tough for French connections in Formula 1. Based in the UK yet owned by the Renault Group and with power delivered from the southern side of Paris to provide two French drivers with opportunities to shine, it hasn’t delivered results. In a period when the nation that hosted the first motorsport events in the 1890s no longer holds an F1 race, it feels as though there is a gap developing. 

Perhaps I’m biased; the first road car I drove as a teenager on the family farm was a Renault 4. I was also taken to Silverstone to watch the 1979 British GP two weeks after Renault had scored its first F1 win at Dijon in France with Jean-Pierre Jabouille. Renault missed out on a second win, but René Arnoux achieved back-to-back podiums with second. The turbo 1.5-litre V6 engine was showing good form after two years of poor reliability and would soon be battling yet failing for titles while inspiring others to follow the same technical theme. 

The Renault chassis team based in France shut down at the end of 1985, yet the motors continued and, while the name disappeared from track briefly for a couple of years, Renault returned in 1989 with Williams. Armed with innovative approaches such as pneumatic valves it immediately challenged Honda. Over the next decade, Renault power won six consecutive constructors’ titles, mostly through Williams but also with Benetton courtesy of Michael Schumacher’s talent and team boss Flavio Briatore’s inspiration. Flavio had bought into Ligier to get access to the Renault engine and it worked to yield Benetton’s only constructors’ title. 

That link between Briatore, Renault and the Enstone-based outfit developed in the 2000s with Renault buying the team and reinstalling Flavio. By the time Fernando Alonso was driving for the team in 2003 podiums were becoming regular. The build-up to a key season was in progress. 

In the factory, technical director Bob Bell and executive engineer Pat Symonds (now GP Racing’s tech columnist) were aiming to improve the technical issues of the 2003 car which made it tricky to drive consistently over a full race distance. Behind the drivers, the power developed by a revised narrow-angle V10 engine was already proving strong. When the R25 first appeared in February 2005, there was a sense the car looked good; a few weeks later, in Australia, the car took pole position and won the race in the hands of Giancarlo Fisichella, while Alonso went from 13th after a tricky wet session to finish third and begin a sequence of 15 podiums including five wins to earn his first title. It was the first of a duo for Renault as an F1 team. 

Alonso delivered Renault its first world constructors' title - having tasted triumphs as an engine manufacturer previously

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

15 years ago, there was a creative element elsewhere which would ensure further French-powered triumph. Red Bull’s Adrian Newey incorporated the double-diffuser aero development into an already rapid car and, 12 months later, Sebastian Vettel claimed his first title revved up by the Renault RS27 V8 motor. Renault could celebrate but by then Enstone was under new ownership and would soon run under the Lotus name with team principal Eric Boullier. Yet success continued through Red Bull for three more years. 

Renault’s desire for F1 powertrains to more closely reflect road-car trends spurred F1’s adoption of hybrid power in 2014, but the link with Red Bull grew strained since performance wasn’t at the level of Mercedes and Ferrari. That fracture led to Renault coming back as a team owner, repurchasing the Enstone team at the end of 2015. Rebuilding proved trickier than expected although a change of name to Alpine for 2021 seemed to herald a new era: in Hungary, Esteban Ocon took a win that combined French talent, team ownership and engine production for the first time since Alain Prost won for Renault in 1983. 

"There’s an interest even though the Renault situation is different to what it was. There are also many requests to be on the calendar, so I understand why an event in France will take a while to happen" Eric Boullier

Alpine’s double podium in Brazil aside, sadly that competitiveness has drifted away, with only 25 more races due to be powered by Renault as the Viry-Châtillon factory ‘pivots’ to a new mandate. Does that mean French interest in F1 is vanishing, as Renault boss Luca de Meo claimed in a L’Equipe interview? Eric Boullier, involved in organising the French GP last time in 2022, disagrees. 

“I think F1 is attractive these days with so many people watching Canal+ TV which is so dedicated to the sport,” he says. “There’s an interest even though the Renault situation is different to what it was. There are also many requests to be on the calendar, so I understand why an event in France will take a while to happen. But one of the biggest sponsors in F1 is the French company LVMH…” 

A new 10-year sponsorship package from a company with F1 links back to 1950 indicates French involvement is as powerful as ever. 

Will Ocon's 2021 Hungarian GP win be the final high point for the latest Renault F1 era?

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images