Renault struggles to strengthen F1 staff

Since its return to Formula 1 as a works effort this year, Renault has struggled to convince potential employees to join its ranks due to a lack of belief in its long term commitment to Grand Prix racing.

Following  its buy-out of Lotus F1 at the end of last year, Renault quickly devised a plan bolstered its human resources but recruitment has proven difficult, according to Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul.

"Where we are behind in terms of our plans is on the human side,"  explained the Frenchman to Autosport.

"Bringing in people as quickly as we would like - both in quantity and quality - has been more difficult than anticipated.

"There are obviously people with contracts in place, and if they want to join us, for people to get out of those contracts takes time.

"First we have to convince them, and frankly that's one area where we are struggling, and I don't understand why we're struggling with people to be convinced by our ambitions and how committed Renault is to this project.

"I want to let people know we are super serious in our projects, but I think that's where acts - more than my words - will show that."

Abiteboul underlined that various employees who were recruited in the recent past will be set to join the French outfit in the coming months however as their current contracts with their employers expire.

Eventually, Renault is looking to raise its staff to 590 members from the current level of 500.

"Hopefully they will make a difference - not to this year's car, unfortunately that will be too late - but for next year's car. It's been a number of engineers in particular. Frankly I'm not going to give names.

"But it's true we thought it would be easier to convince people, and to retain everyone as we lost a couple of people who were not necessarily convinced by our ability to be where we want to be in the future, which is to be a top team.

"To a certain degree I understand them. When you see the level of our competitors, the game has changed so much in the six years since we were last in Enstone."

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