Renault fast-tracks investment in search of progress

Renault has fast-tracked investment into its F1 team in order to try and make quicker progress as a constructor.

While Renault has impressed with its power unit gains this year - resulting in Red Bull moving ahead of Ferrari into second place in the constructors' championship - its works outfit has struggled with just one scoring result all season. Managing director Cyril Abiteboul says the original timeline for success has now been fast-tracked, with the original aim having been to challenge for championships in 2020.

"Talking about investment, the one thing we are doing is bringing forward our plans and increasing the total package," Abiteboul told Autosport. "We had put together a five-year plan, with an investment package, but a couple of weeks ago we had approval to increase that package and bring it forward.

"What we want is to make a difference as quickly as possible, and for that there is no better way than to accelerate what we need to do over the five-year plan."

With Renault taking over Lotus - which lost £57million in 2015 - in December last year, Abiteboul says the financial state of the team shows why it took so long for Renault to conclude a deal.

"It was something that was very well known - Renault knew that was part of the equation. We were completely aware of what we were financially exposed to, so it was absolutely no surprise. That's fully in line with the plan, and the plan approved by the CEO [Carlos Ghosn].

"Maybe now people will understand why [the takeover] took us a little bit of time to approve. [The debt] was known from lengthy due diligence that was done last year, and why such substantial investment was required.

"It also hopefully shows to people that Renault has been able to do what was the only option for this team to continue trading, otherwise I don't think it would be here today."

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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.