Renault's first involvement in Formula One was made through the Renault Sport subsidiary. The team entered the final five races of 1977 with Jean-Pierre Jabouille in its only car. The RS01 was powered by the Renault-Gordini V6 1.5 L turbocharged engine, the first regularly used turbo engine in Formula One history. The car proved highly unreliable and earned the nickname "Yellow Teapot." The team's début was delayed until the British Grand Prix, where Jabouille qualified 21st — 1.62 seconds behind pole sitter James Hunt — and retired on lap 17 with turbo failure. Jabouille failed to qualify at all in Canada, finishing last in qualifying over 7.5 seconds behind Mario Andretti.
The 1978 season was characterised by four consecutive retirements from blown engines, though improvement came at the end: the RS01 qualified third on the grid twice, and at Watkins Glen achieved the team's first points finish in fourth place.
For 1979 the team expanded to two drivers, with René Arnoux joining Jabouille. Both switched to the new ground-effect RS10 mid-season. At Dijon, for the French Grand Prix, the two Renaults occupied the front row; Jabouille won the race, becoming the first driver in a turbocharged car to win a Formula One Grand Prix, while Arnoux finished third after a famous wheel-to-wheel duel with Gilles Villeneuve. Arnoux then took second at Silverstone and again at Watkins Glen.
In 1980, Arnoux won consecutively in Brazil and South Africa — both high-altitude circuits where the Renaults dominated. Jabouille won in Austria but suffered serious leg injuries in a crash at the Canadian Grand Prix, effectively ending his career.
Alain Prost was signed for 1981. Over three seasons, the Renaults were among the best in Formula One, finishing third in the Constructors' Championship twice and second once. Prost won nine races with the team; Arnoux added two more in 1982 before departing to Ferrari. In 1983, Prost and Renault came very close to the drivers' title but were edged out by Nelson Piquet at the final race in South Africa. Prost was fired two days after that season following public criticism of the team's lack of development. He subsequently joined McLaren.
Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick drove the team in 1984–85. Despite Tambay taking the team's last pole position at the 1984 French Grand Prix at Dijon, the team could not match rival turbo programmes from Lotus and Ligier. In 1985, major financial problems emerged and CEO Georges Besse reduced involvement from full constructor to engine supplier for 1986 before ending it entirely after that year. That same 1985 season also featured the first in-car camera broadcast live to a television audience, fitted to a third car driven by François Hesnault at the Nürburgring, the last race in which a team entered three cars.
Renault began a customer engine programme in 1983, initially supplying Team Lotus. The combination of Ayrton Senna and the Lotus 97T in 1985 gained eight pole positions and three wins, but unreliability prevented a sustained title challenge. The Tyrrell team also joined mid-1985. After the works team's withdrawal, Renault continued supplying Ligier, Tyrrell, and Lotus in 1986 with the EF15B engine before closing the engine programme at the end of that year, having scored 19 pole positions and 5 Grand Prix victories with customer teams.
Renault returned as an engine supplier in 1989, partnering with Williams. The Viry-Châtillon factory produced the RS1, a pneumatic-valved 3.5 V10. The Williams-Renault combination scored its first victory at the wet 1989 Canadian Grand Prix with Thierry Boutsen, and Boutsen also won the 1989 Australian Grand Prix.
By 1992, with active suspension, the Williams-Renault won over half the season's races; Nigel Mansell took the drivers' title. In 1993, Alain Prost won 7 of 16 rounds with the technologically advanced Williams FW15C, which featured anti-lock brakes, traction control, and power steering. In 1994, Ayrton Senna was killed at the San Marino Grand Prix; his inexperienced teammate Damon Hill came within one point of the championship before both Hill and Michael Schumacher retired from the season finale in Adelaide.
For 1995 engine regulations reduced maximum displacement to three litres. Benetton acquired Ligier's Renault engine allocation, and Schumacher successfully defended his drivers' title by 33 points from Hill. Williams won both the drivers' and constructors' titles in each of the next two seasons: Hill in 1996 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997. Renault left Formula One again after 1997.
Evolutions of the final RS9 engine were supplied by Mecachrome to Williams and by Supertec to Williams and BAR in 1999, and to Arrows and Benetton (as Playlife) in 2000, though the engines achieved limited success under those arrangements.
On 16 March 2000, the Renault-Nissan Alliance purchased Benetton Formula Limited for $120 million. The history of that team traced back to 1981 as Toleman Motorsport, based in Witney, Oxfordshire; it was renamed Benetton Formula in 1986 after purchase by the Benetton family, and moved to Enstone in 1992–93. Renault retained the Benetton constructor name for 2000 and 2001 before rebranding as Renault F1 in 2002 with drivers Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button, who scored 23 points between them.
Fernando Alonso replaced Button in 2003 and won the Hungarian Grand Prix, the first Renault Grand Prix win since the 1983 Austrian Grand Prix. Renault produced innovative designs including the 111° 10-cylinder engine for the RS23, intended to lower the centre of gravity, though this proved too unreliable and was abandoned. In 2004, Trulli won the Monaco Grand Prix but his relationship with team principal Flavio Briatore broke down; he was replaced for the final three races by Jacques Villeneuve, and the team finished third in the constructors' standings.
Giancarlo Fisichella replaced Trulli for 2005. He won the season opener in Australia after a rain-affected qualifying session. Alonso won the next three races and built a large championship lead. McLaren challenged through Kimi Räikkönen but Alonso secured the drivers' title at the Brazilian Grand Prix, becoming the youngest driver ever to win the title. Renault then secured the constructors' title in China. It was the first time Renault had won the title as a manufacturer and only the second French constructor to do so, after Matra in 1969.
For 2006, the R26 featured a seven-speed titanium gearbox. Alonso won the opening Bahrain Grand Prix and the Australian Grand Prix, and Fisichella finished second in Malaysia to give Renault their first one-two finish since René Arnoux and Alain Prost in 1982. The FIA banned Renault's tuned mass damper system on 22 August 2006, ruling it an infringement of Article 3.15 of the Technical Regulations. Renault secured the constructors' championship with points at the Brazilian Grand Prix. ING replaced Mild Seven as title sponsor for three years from 2007.
In 2007, with Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen, the team scored just one podium all season — Kovalainen's second place in a wet Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway. The team's only significant points haul came via McLaren's expulsion from the constructors' standings following the espionage controversy. The FIA also charged Renault with possessing McLaren technical information; the team was found in breach of Article 151c but was not penalised.
Alonso returned to partner Nelson Piquet Jr. in 2008. At the Singapore Grand Prix, Alonso won under floodlights — the first Formula One race held under artificial light — after Piquet Jr. crashed under safety-car conditions. That crash was later revealed to have been deliberate. After Piquet Jr. was released from the team in August 2009, he stated he had been asked by Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds to stage the accident. On 4 September 2009, Renault were charged with conspiracy and race-fixing. The FIA World Motor Sport Council handed Renault a suspended ban for two years, while Briatore received a lifetime ban from FIA events and Symonds a five-year ban. Both bans were subsequently overturned by a French court in 2010, and a settlement was reached allowing both to return to FIA in 2011 and Formula One in 2013.
In 2010, Renault sold a majority stake to Genii Capital, a Luxembourg-based investment company, retaining a 25% share. Robert Kubica was signed as Alonso's replacement, with Vitaly Petrov becoming Russia's first Formula One driver as his teammate. Éric Boullier replaced Bob Bell as team principal. Kubica took second place in Australia and third in Monaco. Rumours of Kimi Räikkönen replacing Petrov were denied by the Finn himself.
In late 2010, Renault scaled back involvement, selling its remaining 25% stake under a tie-up with Lotus Cars. The team was renamed Lotus Renault GP for 2011, with Renault continuing as engine supplier. On 6 February 2011, Kubica was severely injured in a rally accident in Italy; Nick Heidfeld was signed as his replacement. Petrov took the team's only podium that season at the Australian Grand Prix with a third-place finish. Heidfeld was replaced by Bruno Senna for the Belgian Grand Prix. For 2012, the team — now known as Lotus F1 Team — confirmed Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean as drivers.
After an agreement signed on 15 September 2006, Renault supplied engines to Red Bull Racing from 2007. Red Bull remained a midfield team until the 2009 regulation changes allowed Sebastian Vettel to win at the Chinese Grand Prix, with Vettel and Mark Webber taking five further wins. In 2010, Vettel and Red Bull won both championships, the ninth title for a Renault engine and the first for the RS27. Red Bull won both championships again in 2011, 2012, and 2013 — four consecutive double championships. Williams also returned to Renault engines in 2012. At the 2013 Indian Grand Prix, Vettel and Red Bull sealed their fourth consecutive championship.
On 3 December 2015, Renault announced it had purchased the Lotus F1 Team. Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer were confirmed as race drivers for 2016. Frédéric Vasseur was appointed racing director but left the team on 11 January 2017 after disagreements with team personnel; thereafter the team was managed by president Jérôme Stoll and managing director Cyril Abiteboul. The 2016 season ended in ninth place with 8 points.
For 2017, Nico Hülkenberg joined; Palmer was replaced mid-season by Carlos Sainz Jr., who made an impressive debut at the United States Grand Prix. The team finished sixth with 57 points. In 2018, Hülkenberg and Sainz finished fourth in the championship with 122 points.
From 2019, Daniel Ricciardo joined on a two-year deal after leaving Red Bull Racing. The team was disqualified from the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix due to an illegal automatic brake-balance system. Pat Fry and Dirk de Beer were brought in to restructure the aerodynamic department.
Esteban Ocon joined for 2020 on a multi-year contract. In Belgium, Renault scored 23 points in a single race — their most ever as a constructor — and their first fastest lap in a decade. At the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Ricciardo finished third — the team's first podium since Malaysia 2011. Ricciardo took a further third at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix; Ocon finished second at the Sakhir Grand Prix, Renault's third podium of the season. The team finished fifth in the constructors' championship with 181 points before rebranding as Alpine for 2021.
Renault developed the 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged Energy F1-2014 engine unveiled at the 2013 Paris Air Show, with APC Pankl Turbosystems GmbH supplying hybrid turbocharger kits from 2014 to 2020 and BorgWarner from 2021. From the outset the unit suffered reliability problems with both turbo and energy recovery systems. Red Bull's boss Christian Horner publicly described performance as "unacceptable." In 2015, Red Bull unilaterally terminated their 2016 contract before renegotiating. From 2016, Red Bull's engines were badged as TAG Heuer.
McLaren became a Renault customer from 2018, with Toro Rosso in turn switching to Honda. Red Bull also switched to Honda from 2019. As McLaren moved to Mercedes power from 2021, Alpine became Renault's sole customer — the first time since 2006 that Renault supplied only one team.
On 29 September 2024, Renault announced it would end its works engine programme after 2025 due to financial reasons, with Groupe Renault CEO Luca de Meo stating it was cheaper to purchase a power unit. Alpine confirmed Mercedes as the replacement supplier from the 2026 season.
As part of the company's 2016 return to Formula One, Renault established a young driver academy. The academy was rebranded Alpine Academy when the team became Alpine in 2021.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
