Rumors
Rumour: Renault to shut down F1 program after this season?
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
With Renault having recently changed CEO's, changing to the government-appointed Clotilde Delbos, German news outlet F1-insider have reported Renault's F1 program could be shut down after this season to cut costs within the company.
The French government now have a 15% stake in Renault, with Delbos being personally appointed by French prime minister Emmanuel Macron. She is known to be heavily against the existence of the F1 program.
It would be an incredibly strong change of direction for the French works team, who have already announced their 2020 line-up in Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon. Team principal Cyril Abiteboul also said he could see the team challenging for wins with the post-2021 regulations, which would imply they would still be on the grid to compete, obviously.
Delbos was only appointed a few weeks ago, however, which could mean she could simply take the executive decision to pull the plug on the entire F1 program, which is based in Enstone in the United Kingdom.