Renault not ruling out F1 strategy changes

Renault has not ruled out making changes to its approach to formula one.

Amid rumours of continuing discord with its partner Red Bull, and following the loss of engine partners Lotus and Caterham, it has been rumoured the French manufacturer might be considering running a full Renault-branded works team again.

Official Cyril Abiteboul, however, played down suggestions Renault and Red Bull continue to fall out and head in separate directions.

"Our partnership with Red Bull has been strengthened," he said, "and is going in the right direction, so overall the situation seems encouraging."

But at the same time, amid reports Renault might choose to buy into a team like Toro Rosso and go it alone in F1 once again, Abiteboul did not rule out that prospect.

"We are here for marketing," he is quoted by the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial.

"So if from the perspective of marketing we need to do some things differently, we are open to it.

"There is no ego, the only priority is to launch the marketing messages that we want to achieve in the sport in the most efficient way in terms of cost.

"If you look at 2014," Abiteboul added, "it was very expensive for us. We had four customers, including very good teams like Lotus and two teams both under the ownership and control of Red Bull."

Since then, Red Bull has adopted full works Renault status, Caterham has collapsed and dissatisfied customer Lotus switched to Mercedes power.

"This means that we actually have only one customer now," said Abiteboul, "but the situation is utterly dependent on Red Bull.

"Is it sustainable for Renault? That is the question.

"I'm not saying yes, I'm not saying no (to changes)," he added.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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