Renault Mulling Over F1 Future
Renault has stated that it will decide by the end of the year whether or not to follow in the footsteps of its rival car manufacturers and quit F1.
The French car company held an emergency board meeting to discuss quitting the sport, but has deferred its decision for the time being.
News of Renault’s possible exit comes in the week that Toyota confirmed it was quitting F1, becoming the third manufacturer to leave the sport in the last 11 months following the departure of Honda and BMW.
Renault’s emergency board meeting was attended by F1 team bosses Bob Bell and Jean-Francois Caubet, although neither man was allowed to take part in the debate about the team’s future.
Renault have had their least competitive F1 season since 2002 and finished eighth out of 10 teams in the constructors’ championship after the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
The company came under scrutiny for the team’s involvement in the Singapore 2008 race-fixing scandal, in which they decided not to contest charges that they had asked Nelson Piquet Jr to crash to aid team-mate Fernando Alonso’s bid for victory.
Motorsport’s governing body the FIA gave Renault a ban from F1, suspended for two years, as punishment, while team bosses Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds were forbidden from attending FIA-sanctioned events.
