Renault won’t announce 2016 plans before end of season

2015 F1 season

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Renault will not confirm their Formula One plans for 2016 until next week at the earliest according to managing director Cyril Abiteboul.

The engine manufacturer is poised to take over the Lotus team for next year. Meanwhile Red Bull is waiting to confirm its engine plans for 2016, which is expected to involve continuing with Renault’s engines.

Red Bull has announced extended deals with four suppliers and sponsors over the past two days – Siemens, Sabelt, OZ Racing and Exness – prompting speculation its situation for 2016 has been resolved. However Renault are still not ready to officially confirm their plans.

“There will be no announcement regarding Renault’s future short term or middle term this weekend,” said Abiteboul during today’s FIA press conference. “But there will be an announcement very likely in the course of next week.”

“We have always said that we would like to do it after the season, which ends on Sunday, and at the start of December, so that is what we will do. We will make an announcement then.”

Lotus’s deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi said his team is “on the same page” as Renault.

“We have been working all the time since the Singapore race,” said Gastaldi. “We have Renault people already at the factory and it doesn’t change anything. They are the ones who have to announce. We cannot push Renault to make the decision because it is their call.”

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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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7 comments on “Renault won’t announce 2016 plans before end of season”

  1. they really are leaving it bloody late… I am sure Lotus/Renault development for new season is hindered by this lateness in decision. team lotus will go backward next year no matter what, without Mercedes engine, and from the sounds of it, Renault might not even name the car Renault to try to save face. Poor form from Renault of late, they should just withdraw until a new engine formula is put in place, as they have no chance next year, that is plane to see, especially with latest upgrade of engine in Brazil. mate that engine to Lotus chassis = 7th/8th place next year.

  2. Horner has said today that a deal is in place for Red Bull next year. Given what’s gone on so far it’s hard to see it being anything other than a Renault engine. Though he did say that it was similar to a situation they had proposed at the start of the year, so I wonder if that’ll be a Renault ICE with recovery systems by a third party (or RBR themselves) with development work done by Illien.

    1. @mazdachris, from previous reports here at F1Fanatic I believe this is not possible, meaning not legal. They cannot change the PU as it would be considered a complete different one. We know teams are using different specifications but the only exception granted was for Manor to use the 2014 Ferrari engine and apparently it is the only option available for Red Bull besides using one of the existing or approved engines from the existing manufacturers.

      But of course, I might have understood this wrong…

      1. @BaKano I think the intention would be to run the Renault engine unbranded, or possibly with some kind of generic Red Bull branding. That is to say, the complete package would be homologated as a totally new power unit. There’s nothing specifically in the rules which would prevent you from doing this. In fact there’s technically nothing in the rules to say that a manufacturer can’t homologate a new power unit for each season – it’s just taken as read that this would not be allowed.

        But when it comes down to it, the loss of RBR would be a massive blow for the sport, so I’m sure where there’s a will to get these things done, it’ll be sorted one way or the other. The FIA are able to issue rules clarifications and technical directives whenever they see it necessary; they would only need something ratified if it meant a change to the rules themselves.

        The reason it’s significant really is that it means that Renault will almost certainly retain a presence on the grid, even if it is just supplying blueprinted engines to RB.

        1. i thought that the next year engine was (basically) the finalised versions of this years engine, with the upgrade parts from the ‘token’ allocation added.

  3. petebaldwin (@)
    27th November 2015, 16:39

    “We have Renault people already at the factory”

    I bet Mercedes are delighted.

    1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
      27th November 2015, 16:48

      @petebaldwin maybe that’s why they don’t want to make it official, so Lotus can extract the maximum data as possible before Mercs puts them in “gardening leave”, away from any extra sensible information.

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