The series traces its lineage to Formula France, created in 1968. Over successive decades it used 1.3-litre, then 1.6-litre, then turbocharged 1.6-litre engines, before moving to a 1,721 cc unit in 1989 and a 2.0-litre 8-valve engine from 1995. The defining modern era began in 2000 with the introduction of a Tatuus-built chassis using a sealed 2.0-litre 16-valve Renault Sport F4R engine and Sadev sequential gearbox. This Tatuus Formula Renault became one of the most widely sold and raced single-seater designs in history, with nearly 1,000 units produced and ten years of continuous service.
The 2010 season introduced a replacement chassis developed by Barazi-Epsilon, the EB01, powered by an uprated 2.0-litre Renault F4R 832 engine producing 210 bhp, with a seven-speed sequential gearbox.
The Tatuus-built car was constructed around a carbon-fibre chassis with FIA-approved roll hoop and lateral head protection. Power came from the sealed Renault Sport F4R FRS 1998 cc four-cylinder engine producing 192 bhp at 6,500 rpm. The Sadev six-speed sequential gearbox with limited-slip differential transferred drive to rear Michelin tyres — 16/53x13 inch fronts and 23/57x13 inch rears, with regional variations using Kumho, Pirelli, or Yokohama depending on the championship. The car weighed 490 kg without driver, or 565 kg with driver. Performance was sufficient to reach 100 km/h in 4.85 seconds from rest, and brake from 200 km/h to a standstill in 4.60 seconds.
Formula Renault 2.0 championships were established across Europe and beyond. The principal European series was the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup, supplemented by national championships in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and elsewhere. A Winter Series running between November and February served as an off-season competition. In 2005, the series name was standardised from Formula Renault 2000 to Formula Renault 2.0 across all championships. Regional variants ran under different tyre suppliers — Kumho in Asia, Pirelli in Brazil, and Yokohama in North America.
Following Renault Sport's withdrawal from the World Series by Renault structure, it redirected backing to the French F4 Championship and Formula Regional European Championship, and the classic Formula Renault 2.0 formula gradually gave way to newer structures.
The series generated an extraordinary density of future Formula One champions. Alain Prost won a Formula Renault championship before going on to take four Formula One World Championships. Kimi Räikkönen won the British Formula Renault championship in 2000 and moved directly into Formula One the following year, bypassing Formula Three entirely. Lewis Hamilton competed in the British Formula Renault series as part of his formative career. Felipe Massa and Didier Pironi also passed through the formula at various national championship levels.
By 2009, eleven of the twenty-five Formula One drivers on the grid had passed through Formula Renault 2.0 during their careers, a measure of the series' central role in the pathway to the top tier of the sport.
Formula Renault 2.0 defined an era of junior single-seater racing in Europe from the early 1990s through the 2010s. The Tatuus chassis in particular became a touchstone of well-engineered, affordable racing machinery. The category's combination of genuine speed, manageable cost, and widely contested championships made it the natural bridge between karting and the pressures of serious international formula competition, producing generation after generation of the sport's most accomplished drivers.