Renault in Formula One
, a French automobile manufacturer, was associated with Formula One as both team owner and engine manufacturer for various periods from 1977 to 2025. It most recently fielded a factory-backed team, Alpine, which previously competed under the Renault name.
In 1977, the company entered Formula One as a constructor, introducing the turbo engine to Formula One with its EF1 engine. In 1983, Renault began supplying engines to other teams. Although the Renault team had won races, it withdrew at the end of. Renault engines continued to be raced until 1986. Renault returned to Formula One in 1989 as an engine manufacturer. It won five drivers' titles and six constructors' titles between 1992 and 1997 with Williams and Benetton, before ending its works involvement after 1997, though their engines continued to be used without works backing until 2000.
In 2000, Renault acquired the Enstone-based Benetton Formula team. Renault became a works engine manufacturer again in 2001, and in 2002 the Enstone-based team was re-branded as Renault. The team won the drivers' and constructors' championships in 2005 and 2006.
By 2011, Renault had sold its shares in the Enstone-based team, though it continued to use the Renault chassis name in 2011. Renault remained in the sport as an engine manufacturer, winning four drivers' and constructors' titles with Red Bull Racing between 2010 and 2013.
The company bought the Enstone-based team again in 2016 and re-branded it as Renault. The team did not win in the following five seasons and was re-branded as Alpine in 2021 with the Renault marque remaining as engine manufacturer until 2025.
As a team owner, Renault won two constructors' and drivers' championships, while as an engine manufacturer it had 12 constructors' and 11 drivers' championships. It collected over 160 wins as engine supplier, ranking fourth in Formula One history.
Constructor
Équipe Renault (1977–1985)
1977–1978: Laying a foundation for turbo revolution
Renault's first involvement in Formula One was made by the Renault Sport subsidiary. Renault entered the last five races of with Jean-Pierre Jabouille in its only car. The Renault RS01 was well known for its Renault-Gordini V6 1.5 L turbocharged engine, the first regularly used turbo engine in Formula One history. Jabouille's car and engine proved highly unreliable and became something of a joke during its first races, earning the nickname of "Yellow Teapot" and failing to finish any of its races despite being comparatively powerful.The first race the team, under the name Équipe Renault Elf, entered was the 1977 French Grand Prix, the ninth round of the season, but the car was not yet ready. The team's début was delayed until the following round, the. The car's first qualifying session was not a success, and Jabouille qualified 21st out of the 30 runners and 26 starters, 1.62 seconds behind pole sitter James Hunt in the McLaren. Jabouille ran well in the race, running as high as 16th before the car's turbo failed on lap 17. The team missed the German and Austrian Grands Prix as the car was being improved after its British disappointment. They returned for the, and the qualifying performance was much improved as Jabouille qualified tenth. He had a poor start but ran as high as sixth before the suspension failed on lap 40.
The team's poor qualifying form returned in Italy, as Jabouille qualified 20th. He ran outside the top 10 until his engine failed on lap 24, continuing their awful run of reliability. Things improved at Watkins Glen for the as Jabouille qualified 14th, but the good pace from Zandvoort seemed to be gone as he once again ran outside the top 10 before retiring with yet another reliability problem, this time the alternator, on lap 31. Jabouille failed to qualify in Canada; as 27 drivers entered the race, only one would not qualify, and this was Jabouille as he ended up last, over 7.5 seconds behind the fastest qualifier Mario Andretti of Lotus, and almost two seconds behind his nearest rival, Rupert Keegan, in the Hesketh. After this, Renault did not travel to the season finale in Japan.
The following year was hardly better, characterised by four consecutive retirements caused by blown engines, but near the end of the year, the team showed signs of success. Twice, the RS01 qualified 3rd on the grid and while finishing was still something of an issue, it managed to finish its first race on the lead lap at Watkins Glen near the end of, giving the team a fourth-place finish and its first Formula One points.
The team did not enter the first two races of 1978, in Argentina and Brazil, but returned for the at Kyalami. Jabouille secured Renault's best qualifying position to date, with sixth place, just 0.71 seconds behind polesitter Niki Lauda in the Brabham. He dropped out of the points early in the race before retiring with electrical problems on lap 39. At Long Beach, Jabouille qualified 13th but retired as the turbo failed again on lap 44. He was twelfth in qualifying for the team's first Monaco Grand Prix, and gave the team their first finish in Formula One, finishing in tenth place four laps down on race-winner Tyrrell's Patrick Depailler.
1979 season: Win breakthrough on home soil
Expanding to two drivers with René Arnoux joining Jabouille, the team continued to struggle although Jabouille earned a pole position in South Africa. By mid-season, both drivers had a new ground-effect car, the RS10, and at Dijon for the French Grand Prix the team legitimised itself with a brilliant performance in a classic race. The two Renaults were on the front row in qualifying, and pole-sitter Jabouille won the race, the first driver in a turbocharged car to do so, while Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve were involved in an extremely competitive duel for second, Arnoux narrowly getting beaten to the line. While Jabouille ran into hard times after that race, Arnoux finished second at Silverstone in the following race and then repeated that at the Glen, proving it was not a fluke.1980–1983 seasons: Becoming an established frontrunner
Arnoux furthered this in with consecutive wins in Brazil and South Africa, both on high altitude circuits where the Renaults were dominant. Jabouille continued to have problems with retirements, but in his only points finish he emerged victorious in Austria. At the end of the year, Jabouille crashed heavily at the Canadian GP and suffered serious leg injuries, which effectively ended his career as a Grand Prix driver. Alain Prost was signed up for. In his three years with the team, Prost showed the form that would make him a Formula One legend and the Renaults were among the best in Formula One, twice finishing third in the Constructors' Championships and once second. Prost won nine races with the team, while Arnoux added two more in. Arnoux left for rival Ferrari after 1982 and was replaced by American Eddie Cheever. In, Renault and Prost came very close to winning the drivers' title but were edged out by Nelson Piquet at the last race of the season in South Africa. After the end of the season, a rival fuel company said that the fuel used by the Brabham-BMWs in South Africa had exceeded the maximum Research Octane Number of 102 permitted under the Formula One regulations. BMW said that this was incorrect and FISA released a dossier supporting their stance. No action was taken.1984–1985 seasons: Post-Prost decline and works team exit
Prost was fired two days after the 1983 season following his public comments about the team's lack of development of the Renault RE40 which resulted in his loss to Piquet and the team's loss to Ferrari in the 1983 championship. He subsequently joined McLaren, while Cheever left to join Alfa Romeo. The team turned to Frenchman Patrick Tambay and Englishman Derek Warwick to bring them back to prominence. Despite a few good results, including Tambay giving the team its last pole position at the 1984 French Grand Prix at Dijon, the team was not as competitive in and as in the past, with other teams doing a better job with turbo engines, or more specifically Lotus and to a lesser extent Ligier. provided another F1 first, as the team ran a third car in Germany at the new Nürburgring that featured the first in-car camera which could be viewed live by a television audience. Driven by Frenchman François Hesnault, the car only lasted 8 laps before a clutch problem forced it to retire. In 1985, major financial problems emerged at Renault and the company could no longer justify the large expenses needed to maintain the racing team's competitiveness. CEO Georges Besse pared down the company's involvement in F1 from full-fledged racing team to engine supplier for the season before taking it entirely out of F1 at the end of that year.Renault F1 Team and Lotus Renault GP (2002–2011): The rise and fall of the first Enstone era
Purchase of and transition from Benetton Formula (2000–2001)
On 16 March 2000, the Renault-Nissan Alliance through the Renault brand purchased Benetton Formula Limited for $120 million, to return to Formula One. The history of the team acquired by Renault started in 1981 as the Toleman Motorsport team, based in Witney, Oxfordshire, England. In 1986, the team was renamed to Benetton Formula, following its purchase in 1985 by the Benetton family. In 1992/3 the team moved a few miles to a new base in Enstone. Renault continued to use the Benetton constructor name for the and the seasons, with the Renault name returning in 2001 as an engine brand. When reporting the purchase the International Herald Tribune commented that "the team will not race under the Renault name until it is ready to win and reap the marketing benefits". It was not until 2002 that this name change occurred.First seasons under a new name (2002–2004)
In, Benetton was rebranded as Renault F1 and contested the season with drivers Jarno Trulli and Jenson Button who scored 23 points during the season. As a result of rebranding, Renault received a French nationality license instead of Italian.File:Jarno Trulli 2003.jpg|thumb|Jarno Trulli driving for Renault at the 2003 United States Grand Prix.
Despite outscoring his teammate during 2002, Button was dropped by Renault in. His replacement was Spain's Fernando Alonso, who had been considered impressive as a test driver the previous year. Alonso won the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix, the first time Renault had won a Grand Prix since the 1983 Austrian Grand Prix. Renault was innovative during this period producing non-standard designs such as the 111° 10-cylinder engine for the 2003 RS23 which was designed to effectively lower the centre of gravity of the engine and thus improve the car's handling. This eventually proved too unreliable and heavy, so Renault returned to a more conventional development route.
File:Fernando Alonso 2004 USA.jpg|thumbnail|left|Fernando Alonso driving for Renault at the 2004 United States Grand Prix.
In, the team were contenders for second place in the Constructors' Championship. Trulli won the Monaco Grand Prix, but his relationship with Renault deteriorated after he was consistently off the pace in the latter half of the year, and made claims of favouritism in the team towards Alonso.
Commentators regularly point to the French Grand Prix as the final straw for Briatore, where Trulli was overtaken by Rubens Barrichello in the final stages of the last lap, costing Renault a double podium finish at their home Grand Prix. He subsequently announced he was joining Toyota for the following year and in fact left Renault early, driving the Toyota in the last two races of the 2004 season. Hoping to secure second place in the Constructors' Championship, Renault replaced Trulli with World Champion Jacques Villeneuve for the final three races. However, Villeneuve – away from F1 racing for almost an entire season and struggling to acclimatise quickly to racing at the premier level – did not impress, and the team finished third behind Villeneuve's former team BAR.