Formula One regulations in the mid-1970s permitted 3.0-litre naturally aspirated engines, but also included a clause allowing a 1.5-litre supercharged or turbocharged alternative. No team had pursued this path; the Ford Cosworth DFV V8 remained the dominant engine choice, while Ferrari, Matra, and Alfa Romeo concentrated on flat-12 naturally aspirated units for their own cars and customer teams such as Ligier and Brabham. Renault, drawing on experience from its turbocharged 2.0-litre V6 engine used in sports car racing — culminating in a second place at Le Mans in 1977 and an outright win in 1978 — decided to apply the technology to Formula One. Jean-Pierre Jabouille served not only as designer but also as the team's primary driver, giving him unusual influence over the development of the car he would race.
The RS01 was acknowledged even at the time to be overweight and cumbersome, but this was accepted as an inherent consequence of its experimental nature. The engine block was cast in iron to withstand the stresses of turbocharging, and the chassis was deliberately kept simple to aid development. Team Lotus had recently pioneered ground effect aerodynamics with the Lotus 78, and Tyrrell had raced the unusual six-wheeled Tyrrell P34; against this backdrop of innovation, the RS01 represented Renault's own unconventional bet.
The RS01 was chronically unreliable in its early seasons. The car's tendency to expire in clouds of white smoke earned it the nickname "the yellow teapot" from rival teams. Jabouille and Renault persisted through 1977 and 1978, making steady development progress. The car was entered in 1978 in significantly evolved form, barely resembling its original configuration. Turbo lag — a fundamental characteristic of early turbocharged engines — was eventually addressed through the adoption of twin turbochargers.
The RS01's most significant competitive result came at the 1978 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, where Jabouille brought the car home fourth, scoring the turbocharged engine's first championship points. The following year, the RS01 began the 1979 season alongside the new RS10. Jabouille claimed the first pole position for a turbocharged car at the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami, a high-altitude circuit where thinner air allowed the turbocharged engine to operate at near peak efficiency while naturally aspirated cars — including Ferrari's flat-12 and the Cosworth DFV — lost roughly twenty percent of their output compared to sea-level performance.
The RS01 was a proof-of-concept machine whose competitive record understated its historical importance. Its development established that turbocharged engines could be made both powerful and sufficiently reliable for Formula One, a demonstration that within three years prompted Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, BMW, Honda, and Porsche to begin their own turbocharged engine programs. The RS01 was the foundation upon which Renault's subsequent turbocharged cars — the RS10, RE20, RE30, and their successors — were built, and it set in motion a technological revolution that would define Formula One through most of the 1980s.