Renault may change black livery by Melbourne

Renault on Wednesday revealed a black livery for its return as a works F1 team.

The RS16 became the first car of the 2016 season to be unveiled, at an event held before the world’s media at Renault’s Technocentre on the outskirts of Paris.

A sign of how eagerly the world of F1 was tuning in was that the Renault Sport website - set to stream the event live over the internet - crashed.

Bob Bell was revealed as chief technology officer, Frederic Vasseur as ’racing director’, Kevin Magnussen alongside Jolyon Palmer, and Esteban Ocon as third driver, on loan from Mercedes.

As for the black livery, it might be a nod to Enstone’s recent Lotus guise, but whether it will be replaced by much more yellow by Melbourne is now an open question.

"This is the car that will be in Barcelona in two weeks," said Renault Sport president Jerome Stoll.

"Will it be black in Melbourne? Guess," he smiled.