Renault made their own bed with the new engines rules. They asked for the change and when it became clear they screwed it up they demanded the old engines come back. Mercedes rightly put their foot down and told Renault to lie in that bed.
Now Renault are questioning their own future in the sport as a result of all the mess they helped create in the first place. Quite frankly I say just quit the sport unless they can prove they are committed to it and they can do that by stopping being Red Bull's whipping boys and starting up a new team from scratch. Forget all this buying Force India nonsense. Buying Force India right now would be like paying £1000 for a bag of 100 chocolate pound coins. You'd get the skeleton of a team but be left heavily out of pocket with debt you don't want and some really rather dodgy history on top.
Do it from the start. Set up a whole new team that you aim to win the WCC with.
Have a look at teams who bought other teams,
Honda - BAR - Honda were already pumping millions into the team to the point buying them outright was small change in the end.
Brawn - Honda - Ross bought them for a pound. No debt. Amazing car. Little budget but the big boys are about to come calling...
Merc - Brawn - Mercedes bought a team with next to no debt and a great factory in the UK. A team who had just won a WDC/WCC and who clearly had talent.
This lot did rather well in the end.
Jaguar - Stewart - Jackie wanted out because he had done what he wanted to do and knew he didn't have enough money himself to take on the big boys. Very little debt and engine supplier Ford already owned Jaguar so got a cut price deal for squad.
Red Bull - Jaguar - Ford didn't want to do F1 anymore so sold up to Red Bull rather cheap. No debt. Cheap engines.
We all know how this one turned out.
Midland - Jordan - EJ ran out of money and was up to his eyeballs in debt. Sold team for handsome money to Midland Group who inherited the debt.
Spyker - Midland - Midland ran out of money within a year. Sold up, debt and all, to Spyker at end of 2006.
Spyker - Force India - Spyker ran out of money within a year. Sold up, debt and all, to Force India at end of 2007.
Force India - ? - As we know Force India are running out of money fast and have huge debts, despite what they claim, belonging to their owners. Looking likely they won't see 2016 at this rate.
The general rule seems to be if you want to buy a team in F1 and succeed you buy one that doesn't have masses of debt behind them. Because otherwise you are always playing catch up on the back foot. Renault should avoid Force India and Sauber. Perhaps the new Manor team would be perfect, a team that has paid off it's debt and suppliers and has a complete fresh base to begin from.
Or even better. Why doesn't Renault just buy Toro Rosso from Red Bull who have been rumoured to be looking for a buyer for the team for a while already. They have next to no debt and a great little set up in Italy. Plus they already have staff working there as it is. If they have to buy an existing team Toro Rosso are their best option IMO.