Details are emerging about the reasons why team principal Frederic Vasseur has decided to part ways with Renault, as the manufacturer announced this morning.
The split was officially qualified as 'by mutual consent', with Jerome Stoll and Cyril Abiteboul remaining in charge of running the French outfit.
Vasseur has decided to call it a day following his belief that differing views between himself and Renault's top management would not serve the team's best interests.
"The reason is that there was too much different vision in the management of the team, so at this stage I think it makes sense for me to leave," Vasseur said in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com.
"For the Renault team also, if you want to perform in F1, you need to have one leader in the team and one single way. If you have two different visions then the result is that the work inside the team is slow."
Vasseur, whose reputation was built on the extraordinary success of ART in the junior formulae, is very much perceived as being his own man.
No doubt, his immersion into a structure dominated by corporate governance could have placed him at loggerheads with Renault's top brass and its rigid decision-making processes.
Vasseur acknowledged his frustration of failing to remain onboard and a certain degree of sadness of leaving staff members behind.
"It is a small frustration, but I have a positive feeling that we did all together a good job on some points: in terms of recruitment, in terms of restructuring the company and also in track operations.
"We improved a lot over the past season and some strong engineers will join the team over the next few weeks and months. So there were some positive aspects.
"The collaboration with the 1000 people who work for the Renault F1 team was a wonderful experience for me, because it is a real racing team and I appreciate a lot the collaboration with the guys.
"But the frustration is like if you are building the foundations of a house and you stop after the first metre…. But that is fine. I've made my decision".
The Frenchman said he would focus on his future after a period of rest and consideration, but was convinced he would remain in racing in some capacity or the other.
"I am not too much worried about my future. First, I will take one week off, with my family, and then I will see. I will have some discussions about other projects, but it is not the right time now to think about this.
"I want to close properly my collaboration with Renault F1 team, and then I will think about the future. I have enough things to do to be more than busy, so it won't be an issue."
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