Renault to supply “up to four” teams in 2014

2014 F1 season

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Renault have said they will confirm further details of their F1 engine supply arrangements by the end of next month.

Following the confirmation that Williams will switch from Renault to Mercedes power next year, Renault issued a statement indicating they are likely to supply four teams next year.

“For Renault Sport F1, we have stated on numerous occasions that we would supply up to five teams if there was a requirement to do so, but this would not make sense economically or be ideal for our resources,” said the statement.

“Three, or up to four, teams is the ideal for us so the departure of Williams normalises the situation and makes things much clearer from our side. We will announce the next team within a matter of days, and then confirm the final stage before the end of June.”

Renault have already confirmed Red Bull and Toro Rosso will use their engines next year. Lotus and Caterham also use their power units at present.

After the severing of its partnership with Williams was announced Renault pledged to “continue to actively work with the team until the Brazilian Grand Prix in November to end the second incarnation of the partnership with results that do justice to its reputation”.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “Renault to supply “up to four” teams in 2014”

  1. So in all possibility it looks like Lotus and Caterham would continue to be the other two customers of Renault, at least for the next year?

    1. I’m not so sure if Lotus is willing to continue with Renault: apart from costs, I don’t see much reason for them to ditch Renault, but there is no real reason for them to continue either.

      Caterham is essentially unlucky here: it’s a small team that has hinted they might become Renault’s works team in the future. The Renault engines are expensive, so if they will decide to stay loyal to Renault, they will need to make some serious progress next year.

      1. Yep. Lotus is pretty much a cat on the wall. But I really pity Caterham, as due to their long term association with Reanult, they end up with bigger budgets. But may be they could turn their association with Renault a trump card in bargaining for a better price?

  2. Yes, the Red Bull – STR package makes huge sense, and Caterham has mentioned they want to stay with Renault as much because of the technology transfer (using RBR gearboxes as well) as the cooperation with Renault in the Alpine project.

    With both of those tie ins, I see how the price of the engines can nominally be 20-23 million EUR, but either infinity, or Renault/Alpine will take part of the bill. Lotus is going to pay the full package, probably one of the reasons why Bernie was pushing Goshn/Renault to have a look at the price.

    I can imagine that Renault would offer a deal where the price goes down each year, making a long term commitment interesting, but Lotus would prefer a shorter deal to be free to change to Honda in say 2016 and get a more preferential treatment (and better prices).

  3. Red Bull, STR, Lotus and Caterham seem the most likely Renault users in 2014. That leaves Ferrari to supply Ferrari, Sauber and possibly Marussia (thanks to the Bianchi tie up), and Mercedes to supply Mercedes, McLaren, Force India and Williams.

    For 2015 not much of that should change, bar McLaren moving over to Honda together with probably one other. After the Williams announcement if seems it will probably be one of the Renault teams that will move over to Honda to even out the numbers and given the commercial relationships the only other outfit that looks like it could set itself up for a move is Lotus. There is also a historical connection there…so maybe. Then again, Ferrari does seem to view the back of the grid runners with contempt so maybe they’d side for Lotus over Marussia…though query whether they’d want to supply a team which is likely to be a major competitor with their engines!

    It’ll be fun watching this work itself out in the coming months.

  4. All I want is Marussia-Ferrari, Bianchi-Kobayashi

    Dream team.

    1. @fer-no65 Wouldn’t you like to see Bianchi-Kobayashi drive for Sauber-Ferrari instead?

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        30th May 2013, 14:48

        +1 bianchi needs a powerful team to cope with his expectations, and I don’t think Sauber stays at this deep for too long. They will come back to better times for sure

    2. @fer-no65 – I don’t think that’s likely. Max Chilton will probably stay with Marussia, given his family’s investment in the team.

  5. Caterham have already confirmed their use of 2014 Renault engines

  6. Ok, so Lotus will more than likely stay with Renault engines for next year, but let’s hypothetically say that Renault decided not to renew with Enstone, who would be the fourth team? Can’t see anything else other than a Lotus-Renault next year.

  7. After the severing of its partnership with Williams was announced Renault pledged to “continue to actively work with the team until the Brazilian Grand Prix in November to end the second incarnation of the partnership with results that do justice to its reputation”.

    Because they’ve been doing such a good job of it so far …

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