New season, new challenge for Renault Sport F1

As the 2011 FIA Formula One World Championship season gets underway, Renault also embarks on a new challenge. From this year onwards, Renault will be represented at the highest level of motorsport by its F1 sporting division, Renault Sport F1.

Based at Renault’s traditional racing headquarters in Viry-Châtillon in the south of Paris, RSF1 is responsible for the design, build and ultimately integration of the RS27 V8 engines to the three partner teams, Red Bull Racing, Lotus Renault GP and Team Lotus.

The change in policy, in expanding its activities to three teams, underlines how important Grand Prix racing is to the brand. F1 provides not only a huge global stage, but a proving ground for technology at the highest level.

The three teams supplied by Renault – 25 per cent of the field – will be serviced by six engineers and technicians at each Grand Prix, with the support of deputy managing director (technical) Rob White and track operations manager, Rémi Taffin. Jean-François Caubet oversees the operation in his capacity as managing director, with RSF1 President Bernard Rey the crucial link between RSF1 and Renault’s management committee.

Red Bull Racing: Paul Monaghan, Head of Car Engineering

The partnership with Renault has developed into a formidable one, with all at Viry supporting our expectations to deliver a high level of performance. As we’ve got to know each other the processes and procedures have become more efficient and it’s one of the key reasons we’ve done as well as we have over the past few years: as we’ve grown, Renault has delivered what we needed at the rate we needed it. With the creation of Renault Sport F1, it’s looking even more promising this season as their operation will be even more focussed towards its partners. We’re setting off with high expectations after the double success of last season, but Renault Sport F1’s goals are just as ambitious, which makes it such an effective partnership.

Lotus Renault GP: Eric Boullier, managing director

The relationship we have with Renault is a long and successful one. With the R31, we decided to take an aggressive approach and the engineers from Viry have once again risen to the challenge. We often say that everybody in the team has been working very hard over the winter to prepare for the new season, but it’s never been so true as now. I’m hopeful we can achieve great things together this year and pick up where we left off last year – challenging the top teams.

Team Lotus: Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer

Last year we set out to be the best of the new teams and we achieved this goal. This year we’re aiming to challenge the established teams. The Renault partnership is crucial in this regard, a world championship-winning engine, experienced technical staff and huge know-how of how to succeed at the highest levels of the sport. Of course I’m familiar with a lot of the personnel from my time with the team and I’m looking forward to re-establishing these connections.