McLaren good for Renault's long-term strategy - Prost

Renault advisor Alain Prost believes the French manufacturer's new engine supply deal with McLaren is in the company's best long term interests.

As the McLaren-Honda partnership painfully dissolved and reached its epilogue last weekend in Singapore, the Woking-based outfit has tied its fate to Renault for a three-year period from 2018.

The two companies will be working together for the very first time in their history, and despite the threat posed by McLaren to its works outfit, Renault is happy with its new agreement insists Prost.

"It's a good achievement that we have an agreement with McLaren," says the four-time world champion who conquered three of his titles with the British team.

"It was a long process, not only about having a new partner but the Renault strategy for the long-term. We wanted everything in our hands," he said. 

• Renault improvement in 2018 will help attract leading name - Prost

"It's good for us even if we take a little bit of risk with a very strong team beside us as a competitor. But as a works team you want to beat everybody.

"It was a question of being positioned with things in our hands."

The McLaren deal was only made possible by Toro Rosso's decision to switch to Honda power next season, terminating therefore its own partnership with Renault.

Red Bull Racing was subsequently informed that Renault would not extend its contract with the Milton Keynes-based team in 2019, and Prost offers some insight on the reasons behind the decision.

"The fact that we accepted the deals with the engines, it was very difficult to have Renault on one side and Honda on the other side with both Red Bull teams," he said.

"It's all about what is the best for us because we want to be improving our situation in the future."

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