After Williams, Will Renault See the End of Their F1 Business?

Latest reports emerging, talk about the potential sale of the Williams F1 team. Now another team may be following suit. French Car manufacturing company, Renault recently announced that they will be cutting 15000 jobs worldwide.

This comes under a massive restructuring plan by Renault. The French car manufacturing company saw car sales plunge dramatically this year after the COVID-19 pandemic. This was after the company recorded its first losses in the last 10 years.

The restructuring involves cost-cutting of up to $ 2.1 million over the span of the next 3 years. However, the company said that they will announce voluntary redundancy packages and may also deploy some members in different jobs within the company.

The French state also holds a 15 % stake in Renault. As such the French President, Emmanuel Macron is ready to offer a $5.56 billion loan only if workers are guaranteed jobs.

What does it mean for Renault in the F1 field?

In a bit of good news for fans (for now) of the French team, Renault’s CEO, Clotilde Delbos said that they will remain in the F1 business. However, she also said there will be cost-cutting in the engineering research and general marketing department.

Renault didn’t say how many job redundancies will take place in their motorsport sector. 2 days ago, Renault stated on twitter that they welcome the new FIA rules. They also said that they are ready to make appropriate responses to the short term and long term challenges.

Nevertheless, some rumours continue to persist regarding Renault’s future in F1. French Minister of Finance and Economics spoke to Le Figaro. He said, “The Renault group has its backs to the wall. The government doesn’t want to grant this loan ($5.56 billion) so easily with Renault having to show that money is being saved.”

So clearly, Renault F1 team’s future is still not set in stone despite the momentary reassurance by their CEO. If they fail to save the adequate amount of money by cutting costs they may have to sell the team.

As it is Their F1 team hasn’t shown too much of improvement since returning to Formula One. So the idea of selling the F1 team may not seem the most far fetched idea.

A few days ago something similar transpired at McLaren. They too undertook a restructuring and cost-cutting Program. However, unlike Renault, they announced the number of layoffs expected in their F1 team and assured their team’s place in F1 is safe.