Is Renault serious about future F1 return?

Bernard Dudot, a name synonymous with Renault engines in Formula 1, hopes the French carmaker keeps the door open to a return to the category in the future.

When Renault announced recently that it is completing scrapping development of its 2026 works engine for Alpine, it insisted that the news plans will involve the establishment of an "F1 monitoring unit".

The unit, to be based at Viry-Chatillon’s rebranded ’Alpine Hypertech’ facility, "will aim to maintain employees’ knowledge and skills in this sport", Renault said in a statement.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo explained to L’Equipe: "There will be an F1 technology group to think about the next (F1) engine regulations cycle after 2030."

85-year-old Dudot, a central figure in Renault’s F1 engine operations from the mid-70s all the way through to Fernando Alonso’s titles in the mid-2000s, laments that the 2026 engine will never see light of day.

"The current project was very promising," he rued, speaking to France’s Auto Hebdo.

"All of this is very disappointing. The problem is that F1 in the hands of a large group like Renault is always an adventure whose outcome is very uncertain."

However, the Frenchman said Renault stalwarts like him eventually came to "expect" that top management would periodically pull the brand out but then later re-enter F1.

"You have to expect shocks of this type that are episodic, that sometimes don’t last, that reveal other things, that allow you to change direction or come back again," said Dudot.

"People who work in F1 know this, but it remains a huge loss. Everything at Viry-Chatillon was put there for Formula 1 alone. It is a blow to French motorsport, but as we have already seen in F1, there are always unexpected twists and turns. Opportunities will arise again."

He said it’s good news that the ’F1 monitoring unit’ is being set up, ostensibly so that a return to F1 engine manufacturing can theoretically be triggered for the next rules cycle from 2030.

"I am pleased to see that a monitoring unit is being set up," said Dudot. "That is what will allow us to return in the best possible conditions the day when, for one reason or another, the president - Luca de Meo or someone else - changes his mind.

"It will then be possible to get the machine going again fairly quickly," he explained. "De Meo has every interest in putting Viry in a position to be able to return as soon as possible."

However, Dudot warns that de Meo needs to be very serious about what form the F1 monitoring unit will take.

"This monitoring unit must be able to do its job in the best possible conditions and that requires a minimum of human, technical and financial resources," he said. "Without these resources, it is all smoke and mirrors."