The British Automobile Racing Club founded the championship in 1989. Renault Sport UK took over organisation from the following year. Running initially as the Formula Renault UK Championship with 1721cc engines, the series used 2000cc 8-valve units from 1995 to 1999 under the name Formula Renault Sport UK, then adopted 2000cc 16-valve engines from 2000 onward. A definitive name change to Formula Renault 2.0 UK followed in 2005.
The 2000 season marked a significant technical and commercial turning point: Tatuus supplied a new chassis that pioneered the modern one-make formula concept, a model that would later be replicated by GP2, GP3, and Formula Renault 3.5. French tyre manufacturer Michelin was the title sponsor and sole tyre supplier from 1992.
At its peak, the series ran 20 races over 10 meetings, forming part of the British Touring Car Championship support package and the UK round of the World Series by Renault, giving competitors significant exposure on major televised events.
The series produced a remarkable concentration of Formula One talent. Kimi Raikkonen won the 2000 championship and went directly to Formula One with Sauber the following year, becoming F1 World Champion in 2007. Lewis Hamilton contested the series and went on to claim the 2008 World Championship. Paul di Resta and Heikki Kovalainen were among other Formula One competitors who raced in the UK championship.
The back-to-back World Championships from two Formula Renault UK graduates — Raikkonen in 2007 and Hamilton in 2008 — raised the series' profile internationally and attracted drivers from across Europe and beyond, establishing it as a reference championship for any aspiring single-seater driver in Western Europe.
The championship weekend began with two 25-minute Friday testing sessions, followed by two 20-minute qualifying sessions on Saturday that set the grids for two 30-minute races. Points were awarded down to 20th place, with two additional points for fastest lap. Only the best 18 results from the season counted toward the final championship standings.
A Graduate Cup class ran concurrently for younger or less experienced drivers. To be eligible, competitors had to have participated in no more than two Formula Renault 2.0 race meetings before the current season and had to be under 19 years old. The top Graduate Cup finisher at each round received a podium trophy, and the overall class winner received a fee discount on the following year's entry.
By the early 2010s, the cost of competing in Formula Renault 2.0 UK had risen to approximately 200,000 British pounds per season, pricing out many potential entrants. In March 2012, Renault Sport UK announced the series would not run that year after receiving only six confirmed entries. Initially described as a one-year hiatus, series promoter Stephane Ratel Organisation had intended a 2013 relaunch. The closure was confirmed definitively in September 2012.
A proposal to revive Formula Renault UK was advanced in 2014 by the BARC and motorsport promoter Grovewood, envisaging a two-tier championship combining the modern Tatuus FR2.0/13 with older machinery and absorbing the ailing Formula Renault BARC Championship. Negotiations broke down, in part because of competition from newly emerging Formula 4 categories including MSA Formula and BRDC Formula 4, and the revival plan was abandoned.
Alongside the main Renault Sport UK series, the British Automobile Racing Club organised a separate Formula Renault championship from 1995. Known as the Formula Renault BARC Championship, it was a lower-cost, primarily amateur series using older chassis with fixed gear ratios and an intake restrictor to limit engine wear. After the main series closed in 2012, the BARC championship became the only Formula Renault series running in Britain and rebranded as the Protyre Formula Renault Championship in 2013. It ran until 2014 before also folding due to declining grid sizes, leaving no dedicated Formula Renault championship in the United Kingdom.
At its height, Formula Renault UK was the single most important rung on the British junior motorsport ladder. The density of Formula One talent it produced — including two World Champions — is unmatched by most national junior series of its era. Its closure reflected broader structural shifts in junior single-seater costs and the increasing fragmentation of the junior formula market in the early 2010s, as Formula 4 categories began displacing the Formula Renault model across Europe.