20/02/2023
NEWS STORY
Speaking at the launch of the Alpine A523, Renault chief executive, Laurent Rossi confirmed that the French manufacturer has agreed to supply Andretti with engines should its bid to enter F1 prove successful.
Though Andretti has previously claimed to have agreed a deal with Renault, this was the first time that the French manufacturer has openly confirmed the arrangement.
"We agreed that if they get their licence to run in Formula One, then we will provide them with a powertrain," said Rossi. "But it's up to them to show that they can join the Formula One circus and for that they need to go through the hoops, the process in place where they submit applications and they show that they bring value to the F1 circus and teams in general.
"It's for them to prove it and for the others to assess," he added. "If they join, we'll be happy to join them. If they don't it means that all in all it didn't work out."
Renault engines dominated the final years of the pre-hybrid era, but quickly fell from grace as Mercedes began to rack up the wins and titles from 2014.
Finally dumped by Red Bull in favour of Honda, having rebadged the French units as Tag-Heuer for the final three seasons, Renault was left with no customer teams, asked if his company would benefit by having a 'second team', Rossi insisted that it was not a necessity.
"It's a nice to have, it's not a must have," he admitted. "We could use a second team because you accumulate more data across four cars than you do with two. But it's a drag on your team as well, so you need to be completely well structured. We couldn't that two years ago."
The Andretti saga appears to have gone quiet for now as the sport focusses on the launches and pre-season testing.
However, while the FIA has begun the process of potentially welcoming two more teams to the grid, F1 boss, Stefano Domenicali has advised Andretti to be less "vocal" warning that the American does his cause no good by accusing the existing teams - which are demanding as much as $600m in an anti-dilution payment - of being greedy.