Renault: The departure of Williams normalizes the situation

Renault on Thursday indicated it can cope with the loss of F1 engine customer Williams.

Amid reports Mercedes is offering its turbo V6 at a lower price, Williams announced that it is switching from Renault to the German marque for 2014 and beyond.

Renault, currently also supplying Red Bull, Lotus and Caterham and adding Toro Rosso to its roster for 2014, said the idea of five customers in 2014 "would not make sense economically or be ideal for our resources".

Caterham is expected to stay with Renault in 2014, but it has been reported that Lotus is in talks with Ferrari.

Following the news regarding Williams F1 Team, President of Renault Sport F1 Jean-Michel Jalinier commented:

"We would like to thank Williams for the warmth it has extended to Renault over the last two years and wish the team the very best for the future. Williams and Renault have a long history together and quickly recaptured its winning spirit in the early days of the rekindled partnership with victory in Spain 2012. We will continue to actively work with the team until the Brazilian Grand Prix in November to end the second incarnation of the partnership with results that do justice to its reputation.

"For Renault Sport F1, we have stated on numerous occasions that we would supply up to five teams if there was a requirement to do so, but this would not make sense economically or be ideal for our resources. Three, or up to four, teams is the ideal for us so the departure of Williams normalizes the situation and makes things much clearer from our side. We will announce the next team within a matter of days, and then confirm the final stage before the end of June. We remain incredibly motivated about the challenge of the 2014 engines."