Worksop

Renault's first involvement in Formula One racing was made by the  Renault Sport subsidiary and entered the last five races of the  1977 Formula One season with  Jean-Pierre Jabouille in its only car. The  Renault RS01 was well known for its Renault- Gordini V6 1.5  L  engine, the first regularly used turbo engine in Formula One racing. Jabouille's car and engine proved highly unreliable and became something of a joke during its first races by earning the nickname of "Yellow Teapot" and failing to finish any of its races, despite being extremely powerful. The first race the team entered was the  British Grand Prix but the car's first qualifying session was not a success because of Jabouille qualifying 21st out of the 30 runners and 26 starters, 1.62 seconds behind pole sitter  James Hunt in the  McLaren. Jabouille ran well in the race, running as high as 16th before the car's turbo failed on lap 17. The team missed the  German and  Austrian Grand Prix as the car was being improved after its British disappointment. They returned for the  Dutch Grand Prix, and the qualifying performance was much improved as Jabouille qualified tenth  and had a poor start, but ran as high as sixth before the suspension failed on lap 40. The team's poor qualifying form returned in Italy as Jabouille qualified 20th. He ran outside the top 10 until his engine failed on lap 24, continuing their awful run of reliability. Things improved at Watkins Glen for the United States Grand Prix, as Jabouille qualified 14th on the starting grid but the Zandvoort pace seemed to be gone as he once again ran outside the top 10 before retiring with yet another reliability problem, this time the alternator, on lap 31. Jabouille failed to qualify in Canada; as 27 drivers entered the race, only one would not qualify, and this was Jabouille as he ended up last, over 7.5 seconds behind fastest qualifier Mario Andretti of Lotus and almost two seconds behind Rupert Keegan in the Hesketh. After this, Renault did not travel to the season finale in Japan. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">The following year Renault  <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">did not enter the first two races in  Argentina<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> and  Brazil <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">but returned for the  South African Grand Prix<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> at  Kyalami<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">. Jabouille secured Renault's best qualifying position to date with sixth place which was just 0.71 seconds behind polesitter  Niki Lauda<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> in the  Brabham<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">. He dropped out of the points early in the race before retiring with electrical problems on lap 39. At  Long Beach<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">, Jabouille qualified 13th but retired as the turbo failed again on lap 44. He was twelfth in qualifying for the team's  first Monaco Grand Prix<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">, and gave the team their first finish in Formula One racing by finishing in tenth place but four laps down on race-winner  Patrick Depailler<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Expanding to two drivers with  René Arnoux<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> joining Jabouille the team continued to struggle although Jabouille earned a  pole position<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> in  South Africa<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">. By mid-season, both drivers had a new  ground-effect<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> car, the RS10, and at  Dijon<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> the team legitimised itself with a brilliant performance in a classic race. The two Renaults were on the front row in qualifying, and pole-sitter Jabouille won the race, the first driver in a turbo car to do so while Arnoux and  Gilles Villeneuve<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> were involved in an extremely competitive duel for second, Arnoux narrowly getting beaten to the line. While Jabouille ran into hard times after that race, Arnoux finished a career-high second at  Silverstone<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> in the following race and then repeated that at Watkins Glen. Arnoux furthered this in 1980 with 2 consecutive wins in Brazil and South Africa, both on high altitude circuits where the Renaults were dominant. Jabouille continued to have problems with retirements but in his only points finish he emerged victorious in Austria. At the end of the year, Jabouille crashed heavily in Canada and suffered serious leg injuries which effectively ended his career as a Grand Prix driver. Alain Prost was signed up for 1981. In his three years with the team, Prost showed the form that would make him a Formula One racing legend and the Renaults were among the best in Formula One racing by twice finishing third in the Constructors' Championships and once second. Prost won nine races with the team while Arnoux added two more in 1982. Arnoux left for rival Ferrari and was replaced by Eddie Cheever. In 1983, Renault and Prost came very close to winning the title but were edged out by Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) at the last race of the season in South Africa. After the end of the season, a rival fuel company said that the fuel used by the Brabham-BMW in South Africa had exceeded the maximum Research Octane Number of 102 permitted under the Formula One regulations. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">BMW said that this was incorrect and FISA released a dossier supporting their stance. No action was taken. Prost was fired two days after the 1983 season following his public comments about the team's lack of development of the Renault RE40, which resulted in his loss to Piquet. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">He subsequently joined  McLaren<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> while Cheever left to join  Alfa Romeo<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">. The team turned to Patrick Tambay<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> and Derek Warwick<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">  <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">to bring them back to prominence. Despite a few good results including Tambay giving the team its last pole position at the  1984 French Grand Prix<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">, the team was not as competitive <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">as in the past, with other teams doing a better job with turbo engines or more specifically  Lotus<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> and to a lesser extent  Ligier<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">. 1985<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> provided another F1 first, as the team ran a third car in  Germany<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> at the Nürburgring<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> that featured the first in car camera which could be viewed live by a television audience. Driven by François Hesnault<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">, the car only lasted 8 laps before a clutch problem forced it to retire. In 1985, major financial problems emerged at Renault and the company could no longer justify the large expenses needed to maintain the racing team's competitiveness. Georges Besse<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> pared down the company's involvement in Formula One racing from full-fledged racing team to engine supplier for the  1986<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> season before taking it entirely out of Formula One at the end of that year. Despite outscoring his teammate during 2002, Jenson Button was dropped by Renault in 2003. His replacement was Fernando Alonso who had been impressive as a test driver the previous year. Alonso won the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix, the first time Renault had won a Grand Prix since 1983. Renault was innovative during this period producing non-standard designs, such as the 111° 10-cylinder engine for the 2003 RS23 which was designed to effectively lower the center of gravity of the engine and thus improve the car's handling but this proved too unreliable and heavy, which resulted in Renault returning to a more conventional development route. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">In  2004<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> the team were contenders for second place in the Constructors' Championship. Jarno Trulli won the  Monaco Grand Prix<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">, but his relationship with the team <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">deteriorated after he was consistently off the pace in the latter half of the year, and made claims of favouritism in the team towards Alonso. Giancarlo Fisichella was Trulli's replacement for the 2005 season. He took advantage of a rain-affected qualifying session to win the Australian Grand Prix with Alonso then winning the next three races to build a considerable lead in the Drivers' World Championship, thereby doing the same for Renault in the Constructors' Championship. Meanwhile, Fisichella failed to finish several races. After the San Marino Grand Prix, Renault championship lead came under attack from a fragile McLaren Mercedes and Kimi Räikkönen respectively for the Drivers' Championship. McLaren took the lead of the Constructors' World Championship by securing a 1-2 finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix, but that was to be the race in which Alonso secured the Drivers' title and became the youngest ever driver to do so. This achievement was followed by a win in China to secure the Constructors' World Championship for Renault after Juan Pablo Montoya's car was badly damaged by a drain cover coming loose on the track. This broke Ferrari's six-year stranglehold on that title. It was the first time Renault had won the title as a manufacturer and Renault became only the second French constructor (after the triumph of Matra in 1969) to win the title. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Alonso and Fisichella  <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">were retained for 2006, while Franck Montagny<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> was replaced by  Heikki Kovalainen<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">. The R26 featured a seven-speed gearbox made of  titanium and<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> was unveiled at a launch event on 31st January. Alonso won the opening Bahrain Grand Prix as well as Australia and finished second in Malaysia behind Fisichella to claim Renault's first one-two finish since Arnoux and Prost in 1982. Alonso took two more second places and then won at his home grand prix in Spain, and Fisichella took a 3rd place finish. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">The team celebrated its 200th Grand Prix at Silverstone which was won by Alonso. As the season progressed to its North American stint, Alonso won the  Canadian Grand Prix<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> in Montreal. At the  United States Grand Prix<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">, Ferrari had a performance advantage over the whole weekend. Renault were the fastest of all the  Michelin<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> runners. Fisichella finished 3rd while Alonso finished 5th. At the French Grand Prix, Renault were expected to be faster than Ferrari but Ferrari again had the advantage. Alonso ran third for most of the race, unable to challenge Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa. A tactical switch to a two stop strategy enabled him to pass Massa and finish second. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Points scored in the  Brazilian Grand Prix<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> secured the Constructor's Championship for Renault in 2006. Five years later  Autosport<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> reported that Renault was poised to scale back its involvement in 2011, and become only an engine supplier with the team closing in on a tie up with  Lotus Cars<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> to buy its 25% stake in the team. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:11.2px;white-space:nowrap;">  <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">The deal was finalised in early December 2010, with the team to be renamed Lotus Renault GP for 2011, under a sponsorship deal signed with Lotus Cars until 2017. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> The Renault chassis name continued to be used with Renault branding featuring in the new black and gold livery that was last used when Renault and Lotus joined forces in the 1980s. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">2015 saw Renault announce that they had purchased the Lotus Formula One Racing Team and that they were preparing for the  2016 Formula One season<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;"> with further information to be released that year. February saw Renault unveiled the livery for the Renault RS16, and confirmed Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer as its two race drivers as well as the car driver Carmen Jordá as its development driver. <span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Renault Sport Formula One Racing Team is mainly partnered with the  Renault-Nissan Alliance<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;">. It also has other sponsorships with partners including  Microsoft