F1 2019 | Renault reconsiders its future after horror season continues

Another brutal blow for Renault has the team reconsidering its future in F1 as a rival team’s true colours were revealed.

The horror season for Renault has continued and may even drive the team from the sport with the team set to review their place in Formula One.

Aussie Daniel Ricciardo and his teammate Nico Hulkenberg were stripped of their points for the Japanese Grand Prix after the team was deemed to have used an illegal driver aid.

It cost Ricciardo dearly after his sixth placed finish, dropping from ninth in the series to 12th and cut Renault’s hold on fifth place in the constructors series from 18 points to just six ahead of Toro Rosso.

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Racing Point lodged a protest in Japan, alleging a breach of the Sporting and Technical Regulations and FIA International Sporting Code over a “preset lap distance-dependent brake bias adjustment system”.

Renault disputed the allegation but while an investigation found no technical regulations were broken, the brake bias adjustment system was deemed to be an illegal driver aid.

Despite sharing its fury, Renault decided to not appeal, lashing the F1’s decision as “inconsistent with previous sanctions for similar breaches”.

Renault’s horror season may have slammed the brakes on its F1 future.

Renault have since taken to social media to share that it was a legal brake bias system being used, after Auto Motor und Sport’s Tobi Gruner revealed the footage that piqued Racing Point’s interest.

A GoPro onboard video of Daniel Ricciardos Barcelona shakedown made Racing Point aware of Renaults automatic brake balance adjustment system. You can find it on YouTube.

AMuS story (in German): https://t.co/qMzPKyF4mz pic.twitter.com/75B8BpikSz

— Tobi Grüner 🏁 (@tgruener) October 24, 2019

I never said it's illegal. As written in the article linked in the tweet, it's just how Racing Point claims to have found out about the system they considered as suspicious.

— Tobi Grüner 🏁 (@tgruener) October 25, 2019

But Racing Point CEO Otmar Szafnauer has revealed the team only appealed against Renault in an attempt to get clearance to copy the system.

It originally came to the team’s attention during the British Grand Prix.

“It really came about at Silverstone,” Szafnauer told Sky Sports F1 about their Renault protest. “We had our own problem with our brake bias system. The system failed.

“We had a mechanical failure on the switch and, if you remember, I think it was after a Safety Car, Sergio went completely forward on his brake bias to keep his tyres warm and then couldn’t go back.

“The switch failed and ended up running into Hulkenberg, so we started looking into what we could do to make that more robust.

“What we noticed was Renault especially had an automatic system which is want we wanted too really. We didn’t want to protest Renault, we just wanted to do the same.

“We wrote to the FIA and they categorically said that we can’t do that. So we were hoping through the protest, the FIA would say ‘yes you too can do it’ but it didn’t work out that way.”

Daniel Ricciardo in the middle of the drama.

Along with the on track issues this season, Renault have had plenty to deal with in 2019 with a fall from fourth in the constructors championship and losing their final customer team with McLaren announcing it would switch to Mercedes from 2021.

Renault famously supplied engines to Red Bull as well last season before the team switched to Honda.

It was one of the issues that helped Ricciardo move to Renault from Red Bull.

Renault F1’s managing director Cyril Abiteboul said there would be no impact for next year but from 2021, the team could just do what it wants, rather than taking on input from customer teams.

But interim Renault CEO Clotilde Delbos has revealed Renault’s future in the sport would be part of a “deep review” into the brand.

Asked if Renault could end its F1 and Alpine brands, Delbos refused to deny they could potentially be casualties of the review.

“I am not specifically targeting those two activities that you mentioned but clearly the review of the ‘Drive the Future’ plans means that we put (everything) on the table,” Delbos said.

“It is like a normal process. It is just not a minor review. We are really launching a deep review of our ‘Drive the Future’ plan in order to take into account the new context of the market, the change in usage, mobility etc. and the current situation of the group.

“Everything can be on the table at some point. This is a deep review of our strategy and of our plan.”