Renault-Lotus buyout rumours resurface again

Speculation Renault is close to buying back the Enstone based team will not go away.

The persistent rumour is now being reported by Germany’s Bild newspaper, which claims the French carmaker is set to make a "concrete offer" to the team now called Lotus "in the coming weeks".

Bild said quadruple world champion and Renault ambassador Alain Prost is playing a role.

It follows Prost having told the French broadcaster Canal Plus after the Austrian grand prix that a return to a management role in F1 is "not impossible".

"Lotus owner Gerard Lopez could not be reached" for comment, Bild said.

It could be a case of many current rumours all coming together. Renault currently supplies engines to Red Bull, who have been notably vocal in their discontent in 2015.

Suddenly, however, there are reports boss Christian Horner could be about to lose his job.

"Unfortunately in formula one there are always rumours," Briton Horner said on Wednesday, "and this (one) is total rubbish.

"I’m fully committed to Red Bull and I love what I do."

Also rumoured recently is that, if Renault and Red Bull do split, the energy drink-owned team might turn to customer Ferrari power.

Horner, however, ruled it out on the basis that the Italian outfit would supply Red Bull with inferior equipment.

"Horner saying he doesn’t want a Ferrari ’B’ engine, for me, is a smokescreen," said former F1 driver and now broadcaster Marc Surer.

"The engines are homologated and so the manufacturers are not supplying inferior equipment to their customers," he is quoted by the Berliner Kurier.