Renault

Renault

Monday 20th February 2006

With their double World Champion Fernando Alonso back on the payroll, Renault will be hoping to put last year's disappointments behind them and return to race-winning form in 2008.

Much of the infrastructure of Renault was laid by the Toleman team, which Italian clothing company Benetton took over in 1986.

The move immediately sparked some life back into the organisation, making an immediate impact with their first GP win in their first full season in Mexico City with Austrian driver Gerhard Berger.

They soon cemented their position as an F1 contender, always finishing in the top five, including a third place in 1988. They had to wait until 1989 to get their second GP win which arrived at Suzuka - Italian Alessandro Nannini profiting from the infamous Prost-Senna clash.

The signing of Michael Schumacher for the 1992 season proved a masterstroke and the team gradually moved towards becoming a true championship outfit.

In 1994 the German took the drivers' title although Renault missed out on the constructors championship which remained with the dominant Williams set-up.

However, the following year Renault finally secured the double as they racked up 11 wins from 17 races.

The loss of Michael Schumacher to Ferrari for 1996 season and the withdrawal of their engine supplier Renault in 1997 signaled a downturn in the team's fortune and for several years they fulfilled the role of midfield runners.

The purchase of the team by Renault in early 2000 gave the team some much-needed stability, though the full effect was not to be felt until Renault took total control in 2002.

Within weeks of purchasing the team, Renault had re-recruited Flavio Briatore aand the team have continued to justify a reputation for hiring top F1 names ever since.

Due to an under-powered engine, 2001 was a poor season for the team, although matters improved in 2002 when the Renault name disappeared and the team's revolutionary wide V-angle engine finally produced some revs - though not nearly enough to match BMW, Ferrari or Mercedes.

The car was immensely driveable because of its low centre of gravity and thoroughly unreliable to boot.

Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella swapped teams in 2002 with Fisi getting the worst of the deal by going to Jordan just as they took a performance lurch backwards.

Mike Gascoyne's technical team managed to improve the car throughout the season and married with lightning-fast launch control the team consistently picked up points.

Having replaced Jenson Button for 2003, thus enabling Flavio Briatore to have two of his personally-managed drivers in his team for 2003, Fernando Alonso proved to be 2003's great surprise and pressed Trulli all the way.

The Spaniard also clinched the team's debut victory and firmly established himself alongside the likes of Raikkonen and Montoya as a contender to be Michael Schumacher's heir apparent.

Yet the roles were largely reversed in the first half of the 2004 season, with Trulli enjoying a rich vein of form. It culminated in the Italian securing his first grand prix victory at Monaco in May.

However, with Trulli refusing to extend a management deal with Briatore, his place in the team was already under threat.

Relations between the two parties disintegrated and so did Jarno's performances. The Italian claimed his car had been sabotaged. The team said the only problem was in his head. A split was inevitable, and with three races remaining he was replaced by Jacques Villeneuve.

Alonso had rediscovered his 2003 form by this stage and the Renault team were striving, ultimately in vain, to take second place in the constructors' championship from BAR.

2005, though, witnessed the team emerge as a dominant force in the sport, with Alonso ending Schumacher's five-year reign and Renault taking the constructors' title away from Ferrari, who had held it ever since 1999, at the season-ending Chinese GP.

Reliability was the key for Alonso, who claimed seven wins, eight podium finishes and the ultimate prize, the drivers' championship title at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Together with team-mate Fisichella, who won just one race and was dogged with reliability problems, he also clinched the teams' trophy for Renault as they beat McLaren by nine points.

2006 was another successful season for Alonso and Renault, who claimed back-to-back titles after a tough fight with Ferrari that went down the wire. However, there was also some controversy during the campaign.

After a great start to the season that yield six victories for Alonso and one for Fisichella in the first nine races, Renault's performance began to slide and they were dealt a further blow by the FIA who declared their mass damper technology to be illegal. Robbed of an intrinsic part of their car's design, the team saw Ferrari take an even bigger slice off their lead.

A failing wheel nut ruined Alonso's chances in Hungary, where the team suffered a double DNF, and a rare engine failure for the Champion at Monza handed more points to Schumacher.

But Renault bounced back in the final three events of the season where two second places and a victory in Japan handed Alonso his second World title while Fisichella's efforts also helped Renault secure the 2006 Constructors' Championship.

Paddock insiders suspected that in 2007 Renault would find themselves on the back foot because, even though they've proven in recent years they can build a car capable of winning World titles, they would be shorn of the inspirational Alonso. And that's exactly how it played out.

With Giancarlo Fisichella and rookie driver Heikki Kovalainen driving their R27, the team struggled to repeat the results of the previous two seasons, blaming the switch to Bridgestone for most of their problems. But having a lacklustre Fisichella and a rookie on the payroll couldn't disguise the fact that the car wasn't up to scratch.

However, after a tentative start to his F1 career it was the rookie, Kovalainen, who eventually started to bring home the points for Renault. He even clinched the team's only podium finish of the season, a P2 in Japan.

But even with Kovalainen's improving performances it was evident that Renault were missing something. And deciding it may just be their two-time World Champion Alonso the team has resigned him for the 2008 season, dropping Fisichella to make space. The team also opted to replace Kovalainen with another rookie, Nelson Piquet Jr, who tested for Renault during last year's Championship.

Whether or not Alonso can fix what's wrong at Renault, whether it be their understanding of the tyres or their aerodynamics, remains to be seen.

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