Renault F1 chief Cyril Abiteboul has called for a “sensible” limit to be introduced on the number of people a team can employ, as the Enstone outfit continue their own recruitment drive.
The French manufacturer is in the midst of a multi-year plan it hopes will see them once again fight for the Formula 1 World Championship by the end of the decade, having bought the remains of the former Lotus team to relaunch their works team at the end of 2015.
However, Abiteboul expressed his concern at the scale of a modern-day F1 team operation given the growing number of departments to meet the challenges of competing at the top of Motorsport.
“We have grown a lot in the engineering/technical area and what needs to happen now is to have growth that is compatible with the engineering potential – like the design office, in production, where we are almost too small and almost delaying what aero is capable of producing,” he said to Motorsport.com of Renault’s current recruitment focus.
“It will have to grow in a controlled manner because frankly, I don’t have the appetite for becoming an 800-900 head unit,” he said. “I don’t think it is sensible. I expect at some point this sport will do something so it makes little sense for us to grow at such a level.”
The Frenchman’s comments come as F1 CEO Chase Carey and other senior management figures look at ways of making the sport more sustainable with the idea of a budget cap, more equal distribution of revenue among the teams and standardising those parts which don’t significantly alter the performance and have become areas of excess spending.
“It is not a matter of financial resources, it is also a matter of long-term strategy because I think the most sensible point for the team is in the region of 650 [people],” Abiteboul continued.
“Assumptions for next year are already almost above 650.”
