60 F1 RACING AUGUST 2019
a season withthe old car in a new coat ofpain t,
hastily adapted to accommodate the Renault
power unit, the first of many bumps inthe road.
While Enstone had a functional windtunnel,
many other facilities critical tosupporting
an effective aero research programme – such
as rapid-prototyping machines to make
experimental parts for the windtunnel models–
were absent. Licences for the CFD software had
expired. The composite manufacturing facilities
had also been run down – Lotus had long since
become a team that outsourced such business
rather than paying for inventory and staff ‘in-
house’. The accounts reveal 464 staff on the
payroll, half that of teams at the front of the grid.
It all added up to an organisation lacking the
resources tounderstand what its car’s problems
were, and slow to respond once itdid. Merging
it with another organisation – Viry – whichwas
struggling to cope with different challenges of its
own would be a phenomenal management task.
Renault hired the experienced and well-respected
Frédéric Vasseur to overseethe Enstone end, but
he and Abiteboul failed to see eye-to-eye on all
matters and by the end of 2016 Vasseur quit in
frustration, feeling he had insufficient power to
see his vision through.
Car and engine performance improved
through 2017 and ’18, but both continued to
fall short of expectations. On the engine side,
Viry has had particular difficulty mastering the
critical MGU-H element of the hybrid system,
and reliability continues to be patchy– es pecially
when trying to emulate the kind of high-power
qualifying modes Mercedes and Ferrari now
employ tosuch g ood effe ct.
Last season Renault finished fourth in the
constructors’ championship butwas lucky to
do so, and thegap to the leading three teams
in terms of laptime remained huge. One of this
season’s goals is to be fourth on merit, but the
resurgent performance of McLaren – Renault’s
customer team – makes this a moving target.Rebuilding Enstone hastaken longer than
would have been ideal, not just in terms of
pouring concrete and installing new cutting-
edge manufacturing facilities but also the
recruitment of the right people. F1 teamsguard
their intellectual property, and personnel
typically observe long periods of gardening leave.
Headcount is now over 700 and is expected to
reach 800 by the endof 2019. The technical side
is now overseen by Marcin Budkowski, himself
recruited from the FIA, a hiring that was not
without controversy.
But the team is still relying on contractors
and freelancers to fulfil certain design functions,
there have been difficulties in integrating the
new staff, and the word from inside is that
the organisation can be a little chaotic. The
surprise hiring of Daniel Ricciardo for 2019 –
on a £20m+ per year salary that has required
cutbacks to be made elsewhere – doesn’t
contradict that narrative. Ditto the revelation
the team has removed many elements of a major
upgrade package introduced at the French GP.
At root, Renault’s problem is it has restarted
from a position of weakness andthe syste m
militates against it catching up. The likes of
Mercedes have invested heavily at the right time,
securing competitive advantage off the track as
well as on it. Renault has a seat on the Strategy
Group by dint of finishing fourth last season, but
has nothing like the political clout of Mercedes,
nor its preferential share ofthe prize fund.
“What we un derestimated was the ruthless
non-stop increase of what people are spending towin,” concedes Abiteboul. “We aimed to be about
15% less than Mercedes in terms of resources,
and that’sthe case – but of the Mercedes of 2015.
If I look at the Mercedes of today, we’re nowhere
near 15% down on them. We’re morelike 30-40%
down on them.
“It’s not inflation. They’re spending more and
more year after year to maintain and increase
their dominance. And they’re doing that because
they have the capacity on the back of the
commercial agreements that are inplace with F1.
It’s fair to say that we’ve been a bit naive.”
Sisyphus was punished by Zeus for twice
cheating death, in doing so meddling in the
natural order of the world laid out by the gods
themselves. For as long as the three grandee
teams of the hybrid era continue to holda
disproportionate influence over the rules and
commercial structure of Formula 1, Renault is
likely to continue its toil: hauling itself towards
the summit as the seasons pass, only to fall back
again before gettingthere. An unsustainable
existence if ever there was one...WHATWEUNDERESTIMATED
WASTHERUTHLESSNON-STOP
INCREASEOFWHATPEOPLE
ARESPENDINGTO WIN
WEAIMEDTO BEABOUT15%LESS
THANMERCEDESINTERMSOF
RESOURCES.WE’RENOWHERE
NEAR15%DOWNONTHEM.
WE’REMORELIKE 30 - 40%
DOWNONTHEM
CYRIL ABITEBOUL””