Renault Never Considered F1 Exit Despite ‘Dramatic’ Situation – De Meo

Deo Meo has affirmed the French car-maker’s commitment to Formula One.

Luca de Meo, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Renault, has revealed he never considered pulling the plug on the car-maker’s Formula One project despite the COVID-19 pandemic hurting the company’s financial performance and the works team falling well short of its objectives in the sport.

“Of course, you will always have this tension because the situation is so dramatic in general.

READ: Hamilton Will Always Be The Highest-Paid Driver Of His Generation – Mercedes

“Especially at Renault, the easiest thing you want to do is to do this kind of thing where some people consider this a hobby,” de Meo added.

Continuing, he described himself as a “car guy” and said he is “not going to be the guy who turns off the light on 43 years of commitment to the series [F1].”

De Meo explained that this is why he opted to rebrand Renault’s F1 team for the 2021 season:

“That is why I have come up with this idea to turn the thing around and build a new story that maybe from a business point of view has some potential.

“Sometimes you have to remix the ingredients that you have. That is the beauty of this story of Alpine,” he added.

Renault returned to Formula One in 2016 following the French car-maker’s acquisition of the Lotus F1 team.

Article continues below

They are currently fifth in the F1 Constructors’ Standings and are yet to win a podium since returning to the sport.

However, 2021 could be a strong year for them if they are able to produce a strong package, as they will have Fernando Alonso – widely regarded as one of the best drivers of his generation – in the cockpit of one of their cars.

Subscribe to Formula1News.co.uk’s Google News feed for the latest F1 news

Enjoyed reading this article? Consider sharing it: