Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRenault

Renault rebuilding technical base at Enstone

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With the trauma of the 2015 season behind it, the former Lotus F1 team headquartered at Enstone now faces a brighter future with new owners Renault committed to rebuilding the squad's depleted technical expertise.

"We are in the process of re-resourcing Enstone and part of the road map is to be clear how we build up the resources over a two year timeframe," explained the team's new chief technical officer Bob Bell.

"The head count is around 470 now and needs to be close to 650 in the long term, but it will take us up to 18 months to do it," he added, indicating plans for a staged recruitment drive for around 180 new staff over the next two seasons.

"Recruitment is about finding the right mix of people. We need fresh, young inexperienced blood mixed with older hands. It’s about getting that balance right and it’s very important not to rush it and take people because they are available or because we have a slot. We need to make sure we have the right mix.

"It is less about resourcing and more about restructuring to make it mesh with Enstone and fit for purpose in the coming years," he pointed out.

As a result of this, "It’s a reasonably protracted process to get to where we need to get," noted Bell. "But we still need to show good progress and move forward in all areas in the meantime."

For the time being, Bell says he's been pleased with what he's found after returning to a senior position at Enstone after brief spells at Mercedes and Manor Marussia, describing it as a positive transition so far and insisting that progress had been remarkably positive.

"The first and most obvious conclusion is that we have a strong and dedicated team who are able to bring a car together in a short space of time," he said.

"It naturally does not represent the pinnacle of integration we would aspire to, but we will get there. First and foremost we know that the team has strength and depth, and we will go even further in the future."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.