Renault is unconcerned about potentially strengthening a rival team in McLaren in 2018, claiming success with their engine is more important than with their works team.
Last weekend it was confirmed the British team would be ending their troubled partnership with Honda and switch to the French manufacturer from next season after Mercedes and Ferrari had said no to the opportunity.
The main concern of the current top two teams on the grid was that supplying McLaren could make them close competitors due to their known strength in building a strong chassis, however, Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul insists the deal agreed meets with the company’s ambitions.
“It’s been a fairly long and complex process for the number of parties that this was involving, but I think that the solution reached is one that is good for all parties,” he said. “It’s in particular one that manages to keep Honda in the sport, and I think it’s very important to keep a diversity of manufacturers involved.
“As far as we’re concerned, it was not an easy decision. We know that we are making a competitor stronger. We know that very well,” he acknowledged. “Having said that, the activity of Renault in F1, since 40 years that we’ve been in F1 is in particular articulated around what we are doing on the engine side.
“We are a car maker; the engine is at the core of the automotive. That’s what we have always been doing. We have been a works team on and off, we are currently ‘on’ – but it doesn’t remove anything from our engine activity that must be sustainable.”
The current incarnation of the Renault works team is in its early stages, having picked up the remains of the former Lotus outfit at the end of 2015, and there is a plan in place which they hope can see them fighting for titles by 2020.
However, a wide-ranging partnership was spoken of with McLaren – after their last technical tie-up with Red Bull broke down – and the company does have a strong history as a supplier as Abiteboul pointed out.
“What we want to do is to supply aspirant teams, great teams, great drivers,” he said. “We’ve done 13 years with Williams with five championships, 12 years with Red Bull Racing, four championships as Constructors’, so we really look forward to the start of this new association with McLaren.”
