Renault

Automotive conglomerate

Renault, From Turbo Pioneer to Champion

The French manufacturer brought turbocharging to Formula One in 1977 and, after buying Benetton, won back to back double titles with Fernando Alonso.

Renault raced its own cars in the World Championship in three spells. The first began at the 1977 British Grand Prix, when its Renault Sport subsidiary entered a single car for Jean Pierre Jabouille, built at Viry Châtillon in Essonne. Its turbocharged V6 was the first turbo engine used regularly in Formula One, and after a fragile start Jabouille won the 1979 French Grand Prix at Dijon from pole position. René Arnoux and Alain Prost followed with more wins, Prost taking nine for the team, but no title came, and Renault withdrew its works team at the end of 1985.

The company returned as an engine supplier and won championships with Williams and Benetton in the 1990s. In 2000 it bought Benetton's team at Enstone in Oxfordshire, and from 2002 the cars carried the Renault name again. Fernando Alonso won the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix, Jarno Trulli took Monaco in 2004, and then Alonso made the team champion. Alonso won the drivers' title in 2005 and 2006, Renault took the constructors' championship both years, and he won 17 races for the team in all, the last two in 2008.

Renault sold its shares in the Enstone team by 2011, though the cars kept the Renault chassis name that season before racing on as Lotus. The manufacturer bought the team back in 2016, but this third spell brought no wins, and after the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix it was renamed Alpine.

Across those seasons Renault started 400 World Championship races as a constructor and won 35 of them, from Jabouille in 1979 to Alonso at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix.

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