Emilia Romagna GP || May 19 || 15h00 (Local time)
8 May 2024
Ecclestone ’tempted’ to buy Renault team in 2009
But was talked out of it by Mackenzie
Bernie Ecclestone has revealed he was "very tempted" to buy Renault’s formula one team when the French carmaker pulled out as an owner.
Actually, the Enstone based team was bought by its current owners Genii Capital, but there are reports of financial trouble and rumours a group involving David Richards might step up to take over.
F1 chief executive Ecclestone told the Daily Telegraph he was interested in buying Renault two years ago but was talked out of it by Donald Mackenzie.
Mackenzie, the CVC director in charge of the F1 ownership, is the newly appointed chairman of the formula one holding company.
Referring to his interest in buying Renault, Ecclestone said: "Donald said to me, we just can’t. If we owned a team it would cause us trouble.
"Every time that team was on TV people would say we were favouring it."
