Renault purchased Benetton Formula Limited on 16 March 2000 for $120 million, acquiring a team whose history stretched back to Toleman Motorsport in 1981. The Enstone-based squad had been renamed Benetton Formula after the Benetton family's purchase in 1985 and relocated to Enstone in the early 1990s. Renault continued racing under the Benetton name through 2001 before switching to the Renault badge in 2002, at which point the team received a French nationality licence in place of the Italian one it had previously held.
In 2002, the rebranded team raced with Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button, scoring 23 points across the season. Button was replaced for 2003 by Fernando Alonso, who had impressed as a test driver. Alonso delivered the team's first Grand Prix victory since the Benetton era by winning the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix — also Renault's first win as a constructor since the 1983 Austrian Grand Prix. The team experimented with an unconventional 111-degree 10-cylinder engine configuration in the RS23, aimed at lowering the centre of gravity, but reliability issues led them to abandon it for a more conventional approach.
In 2004, Trulli won the Monaco Grand Prix but his relationship with team principal Flavio Briatore deteriorated during the second half of the season. He left Renault mid-season, with 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve joining for the final three races in an unsuccessful bid to secure second place in the Constructors' Championship. The team ultimately finished third.
Giancarlo Fisichella replaced Trulli for 2005. Fisichella won the rain-affected opening race in Australia, then Alonso won the next three to build a commanding championship lead. After a close fight with McLaren and Kimi Räikkönen, Alonso clinched the Drivers' title at the Brazilian Grand Prix, becoming the youngest world champion at that time. Renault secured the Constructors' title with a win in China, ending Ferrari's six-year dominance. It was the first Formula One title for Renault as a manufacturer and only the second constructors' crown for a French-licensed team.
The 2006 season saw Alonso and Fisichella retained. Alonso won in Bahrain, Australia, Spain, Monaco, Canada, Silverstone, and several more rounds. A controversy arose mid-season when the FIA banned mass damper systems that Renault had pioneered, but Alonso still sealed a second consecutive Drivers' title and Renault claimed the Constructors' Championship again when points scored in Brazil confirmed their lead. ING, the Dutch banking group, replaced Mild Seven as title sponsor from 2007 under a three-year agreement.
Without Alonso, who had moved to McLaren for 2007, Renault fielded Fisichella and rookie Heikki Kovalainen. The team won just one podium all season, a second place for Kovalainen at the Japanese Grand Prix. Alonso returned in 2008 alongside Nelson Piquet Jr. Results were inconsistent until Singapore, where Alonso won under floodlights — the first night race in Formula One history. The victory later became deeply controversial when it emerged that Piquet Jr. had deliberately crashed under team orders to trigger a safety car that benefited Alonso's strategy.
After Piquet Jr. was dropped mid-2009 and replaced by Romain Grosjean, he alleged that Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds had instructed him to crash. The FIA charged Renault with race-fixing. At a September 2009 hearing, the team accepted the charges; Briatore and Symonds departed. Renault received a suspended two-year ban from the sport. Briatore's lifetime FIA ban and Symonds' five-year ban were subsequently overturned by a French court, and both men eventually returned to Formula One.
Renault sold a majority stake in the team to Luxembourg-based investment firm Genii Capital in 2010, retaining a 25 percent share and continuing as engine supplier. Éric Boullier was appointed team principal, with Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov as drivers — Petrov becoming Russia's first Formula One driver. Kubica showed strong pace, taking a second-place finish in Australia and a third in Monaco, but the team's results were inconsistent. Red Bull Racing, using Renault engines, dominated the season and claimed both championships.
In November 2010, Renault agreed to sell its remaining 25 percent stake to Genii Capital, with Lotus Cars taking on a sponsorship arrangement that led to the team being renamed Lotus Renault GP for 2011. Renault continued as engine supplier and Red Bull Racing was elevated to Renault's de facto works partner. The black and gold livery recalled the John Player Special colour scheme of the Lotus-Renault alliance of the 1980s.
For 2011, Kubica suffered severe injuries in a rally accident in February before the season began. Nick Heidfeld was signed as his replacement. Vitaly Petrov took the team's only podium of the season, a third place at the Australian Grand Prix. Heidfeld was replaced by Bruno Senna from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards. At season's end the team announced Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean as its 2012 drivers, at which point the outfit became known as the Lotus F1 Team, severing the final direct link to the Renault name at Enstone.
The 2002–2011 Renault era produced two Drivers' Champions in Fernando Alonso and delivered Renault its only constructors' titles as a team owner. The Crashgate scandal permanently scarred the reputation of the 2008 Singapore victory but did not erase the memory of the 2005–2006 double championships, which marked the high point of a team that would continue under various identities — Lotus, Renault again from 2016, and finally Alpine from 2021.