After months of speculation, Renault are reportedly finalizing a deal with Lotus, marking their return to Formula 1 as a ‘Works’ team for the first time since 2010.
It looks like the waiting is over and the answer to the “what will Renault do?” question is finally here. They chose to come back to Formula One on their own terms, instead of remaining a supplier or pulling out altogether.
According to a report from Autosport, Renault will take a stake of up to 65%, worth about £65 million, with an initial down payment of £7.5 million, followed by equal installments over the next 10 years. With this deal in place, Lotus F1 team co-owner Gerard Lopez would remain on as a shareholder with a potential stake of around 25%. Current Renault ambassador Alain Prost is set to acquire the remaining 10%.
It’s a similar deal to what Mercedes has with Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda.
Renault has apparently also negotiated a full sponsorship package, where CEO Carlos Ghosn is guaranteeing a budget that would put the team on the same level as Mercedes and Red Bull.
One of the things that Renault has to decide on is what will they do with Lotus’ current driver line-up. Odds are that Renault will keep Frenchman Romain Grosjean (yes because of his nationality but most of all because of his talent and his results), while Pastor Maldonado might end up having to drive for somebody else – unless he’s able to retain his seat via other means.
Also, one of the main reasons for Renault choosing Lotus over, say, Force India, has been the fact that Lotus’ facilities are well known to Renault. Force India also doesn’t have access to the type of facilities Lotus does at their Enstone factory.
As for the power-unit dilemma, Renault might still honor its contracts with Red Bull and Toro Rosso for 2016, as well as Lotus’ deal with Mercedes. The fact that Renault has real-world affiliations with Mercedes might make that situation completely drama-free.
If Renault would keep the Mercedes engine, they would probably do so for just one season, in order to finish off the contract, while Red Bull might just switch to Mercedes engines, as it’s been suggested in the past.
Overall this is great news for Formula One and its fans, because one more factory team means one more big budget team taking on Mercedes.
There’s no way Renault would have chosen to come back unless they planned to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the reigning world champs.
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