After months of flirting with a final decision, Renault has finally managed to complete the purchase, thus marking their official return to F1 as a Works team.
Even though the takeover was announced long ago, Renault has just now managed to secure the transfer of shares and complete the payment of debts.
“We have a completion of the share purchase,” a lawyer was quoted as saying by Reuters. “We have the keys, so to speak.”
Before the new team name and managing structure is to be finalized in February, the new board of directors will steer the team in the right direction – with Jerome Stoll as chairman and Cyril Abiteboul as managing director.
One extremely interesting aspect will be the relationship between Renault and Red Bull in 2016. While the engine will have to be identical, odds are, at least at the moment, that the Red Bull chassis will be superior, at least until the 2017 season when we’ll see more rule changes.
Aside from the cars, Red Bull also has a superior driver lineup compared to that of Renault, with Daniel Ricciardo’s star still shining bright and Kvyat hot on his trail.
It is conceivable for the French manufacturer to use 2016 to simply get through their growing pains and prepare for 2017, but whatever issues they’ll end up facing, it will certainly not be as bad as it was this year for McLaren.
Story references: motorsport
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