'Renault decision expected by the end of the week'

Thursday 5th November 2009

Just hours after Toyota announced their withdrawal from Formula One, questions were raised by Renault's future in the sport.

The French carmaker held a board meeting in Paris in Wednesday afternoon to debate whether or not they will join the likes of Honda, BMW and Toyota in leaving the sport.

Interim team bosses Bob Bell and Jean-Francois Caubet were both present, however, according to the BBC they were just there to listen and were not permitted to participate in the discussion.

Renault, who won the 2005 and 2006 Championships with Fernando Alonso, recently came under scrutiny for the team's involvement in the Singapore 2008 race-fixing scandal.

Handed a two-year suspended ban by the FIA, Renault vowed to continue in Formula One. However, their participation is in now in doubt.

No word has yet been leaked on the outcome of the meeting although the Daily Mail is reporting that their exit from F1 is imminent.

'Renault's board met in Paris to discuss whether to make their own exit, possibly not until the end of next season, although they will probably remain as engine suppliers,' claims the newspaper.

'They are expected to announce their decision by the end of the week.'

Your Comments

spade

"I knew when the punishment was handed down that there was going to be trouble. I must admit that Renault is not my favorite team, that doesn't mean that I want them to drop out. It seems to me that they were waiting for the excuse to leave. "

biso9700

"andrettifan, i think you will find it was John Barnard with McLaren that introduced carbon fibre into F1!, and the point about their lack of any monetary fine is, it was supposed to have been "the most serious breech of F1 rules in the history of the sport!", yet they got away with a penalty that amounted to nothing more than a slap on the wrist!, compare that to the fine McLaren recieved!(and remember, it was never PROVED that the management was involved there either!), and now after throwing their sacrifices to the wolves, they walk away anyway, which if it had been known that was their intention(which is obvious, given the events of "crashgate", or the perpertraitors would never have resorted to such extreme measures in order to convince the Renault board to stay!), the FIA could have extracted a severe monetary fine before they went!, but in their attempt to keep Renault from leaving, the FIA decided to forgo the fine, given the current economic climate!, and now its clear that they have again "cheated", because they will leave, contracts with drivers or not!"

junho

"The salary of kubica for a major corporate like renault is no more than a tip.Hey watchcam tell your father to buy a british car...if he found one..."