Renault to sell team, stay as engine supplier?

[alonso 4ever]

i think this is possible..

Renault may be considering the sale of its Enstone based formula one team but staying on the grid as an engine supplier only.

That is according to the Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell, while naming two prospective buyers for the French carmaker's team.

One buyer was identified as Gerard Lopez, co-founder of venture capital firm Mangrove, and the other a Russian by the name of Andrej Krajnik, who is linked with the existing Renault sponsor Megafon.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper before leaving Brazil last weekend that he "just talked to a guy who wants to buy one of the teams".

[icegirljenni]

Just as we predicted, soon Toyota follow. But i have doubt whether there will be a person interested in buying off the Renault.

[Tension_36th]

This is entirely possible as i predicted a while back, Renault does not have to stay on as a works team they can carry on as a engine supplier and sell the team to another interested buyer.

But Renault will be costly to buy for anyone.

[pete]

Wouldnt be to bad if there car was any good but going by recent years it might be hard to find a buyer for the team unless you got some really good technical staff but if a few teams are leaving then you might just get some good technical staff from a few teams and then produce a half good car.

[Tension_36th]

Like we expected, there are now news of Renault's partial sale or even complete sale very soon, for now they are talking about a 40% sale.

Russian money coming in to make space for Vitaly Petrov. This would mean Renault are not really that great a place to be anymore especially given how pathetic they have been of late in performance.

One has to feel sorry for Kubica.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/ne...4543.shtml

[icegirljenni]

I dont know why Kubica sign for a team like Renault, who is really men behind this arrangement.

[alonso 4ever]

oh god...

yeah, the poor guy.. i really feel sorry for him but at least he'll be racing, right?!
i know renault is not a good team and they won't be competitive but still better that staying home!!

[stoktos]

Oh shitty :/ Why? why? why? First Kimi gone from F1, now Renault want to sell team and possibly Kubica will lose his job :/ shit!

[Spyro]

It all depends on who will be working on the car if the designers is good then they will have a racing car.

A shame if Kubica would be out of a job but i dont think they leaving this year i think it is for 2011 year but i might be wrong

[Tension_36th]

It remains to be seen if Brawn had shown any interests in inquiring about Kubica, if they are considering Nick they are totally foolish to not even consult with Kubica's management.

Perhaps its a case of Brawn minding the fact that Kubica is already signed with Renault, and maybe they might have had discussions long back casually but at the time button was firmly expected to stay on.

[icegirljenni]

If what you said were right, Brawn has no longer has the power to sort the driver line up, then we are set to accept Nick + Nico combo which Nick is lucky here

[alonso 4ever]

i don't know if that will add more information!! very expected

Renault's Ghosn admits F1 concerns

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/ne...1045.shtml

[Tension_36th]

Renault has restructured its team ahead of 2010, we can now fairly say the team will stay on whether its in another guise after being sold or not. It doesnt matter, Kubica will not be released they cant allow that now that they will indeed race on. They will need a star driver.

James Allison will now be the team principle replacing temporary acting Team boss Bob bell. James is being promoted from his current role as deputy technical director.

Bob bell was widely believed to be going back to his role as Head technical director once a replacement Team boss was found, but the worse is that he will remain in senior management role, this is a shame he was a fine engineer far better than Prat symonds. This may have something to do with Bob not wanting to be reporting to someone who was a junior to him n the technical dept.

Steven Nielsen is now being promoted to the position of sporting director to help take some of the responsibilities off Bob Bell.

And finally, vehicle technology director plus in charge of vehicle dynamics and electronics Mr. Tad Czapski, is leaving Renault.

We are yet to see some highly prized minds coming in to really help that team out. But with Prat Symonds out there is some hope they will hire talent rather than cheap interns and fresh incompetent engineers to do the main work.

There is also a story at F1-live about how the Chinese are gathering pace and interest in getting Ho-Pin Tung to Renault possibly through the sale of the team to Luxumberg based backers Mangrove Capital.

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/ne...1531.shtml

[alonso 4ever]

thanks tension..

what a great news!!

but still that does not mean they r safe in 2011 or even being sold this season..

but at least kubica will be racing in 2010 :)

[Tension_36th]

Autosport speculating that David Richards and his Pro-drive outfit to buy into Renault but will use Mercedes Engines since they had a deal in place.

This is highly unlikely, that deal was for another project that failed, so that deal has no relevance now.

I think the French have got it right, reduced budgets and sale of shares to a company like Mangrove, plus they are mostly getting Panasonic as their main sponsor

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80424

[Forza Fernando]

Hmmmmm Please , please I must see Robert in Renault !

[icegirljenni]

Renault considering rival bids for team

Quote:Le Parisien suggests that Renault's CEO Carlos Ghosn favours this option for the future - especially because it has the blessing of Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

AUTOSPORT understands that although the executive committee did not make a formal decision about its plans for next year, it feels the Lopez bid is in pole position.

However, the situation is complicated by the fact that the current Renault F1 team management is believed to favour the bid being put together by Prodrive.

Richards' vast experience of running teams at all levels of motorsport would be valuable to Renault as it bids to return to the top in F1 - and it is believed his involvement would allow Renault the chance to withdraw its name from F1 and remain only as an engine supplier.

Ecclestone told The Times on Friday that he was confident a solution would be found to keep the Renault team in F1.

"We've got to get the whole Renault thing sorted out," he said. "We are in the middle of doing it now. I feel confident that we'll see Renault next year in Formula 1 under the name Renault and the year after and the year after that."

[Tension_36th]

What is sure now is Renault is pulling out and the team will be sold.

The only problem is while Prodrive is a great company, its leader David Richards is not a good man. He is political and biased when it comes to drivers. JV can tell you that. Once he picks a favorite there will be Mclaren style dramas in terms of driver support and strategies.

We know how Kubica is when it comes to demands on his car, he wants the absolute best and will often rightly disagrees when the team decides to go the wrong way. He will have problems with pricks like David Richards. But from an engineering point of view Prodrive will crush any other investment group, because the others can only bring money. Prodrive will bring in money and engineers.

[Tension_36th]

Greedy old geezer Bernie says there are upto 4 bidders to take over Renault.

The engineers at Renault are all for Prodrive, but the top brass at Renault are thinking along the money lines and are eyeing Gerad Lopez's Mangrove investment Co.

What we need is proven racers with racing experience and motorsports attitude. Only Pro-Drive can provide that, plus the engineering assets.

Though there is that draw back that I talk about earlier. Its David Richard's attitude towards the drivers that drive for him.

[icegirljenni]

Looks like the chances for Renault to stay are damn less. Kubica chances for driving maybe quite threaten now