Team History
It is a fusion of two tales.
The British tale.
Enstone is a legacy from Toleman formula two team
Which had fairly good success with Warwick and Henton thanks to BP Support.
Then they stepped in F1 in 1981.
Only qualified for two races.
Their real first crack was 1982. They got noticed for the first time when Warwick fought in the top 3 having half a tank.
The team made his mark in 1984 with three podiums when a young brasilian bloke named Senna Da Silva came on board.
However owners had tendency to have a regular conflicts so when Senna announced his move to Lotus he was benched for 1 race.
Then they fell out of grace with Michelin,Goodyear and Pirelli, no one wanted to supply them tyres unless they changed ownership so....
Benetton came onboard.
First season and first win as BMW customer with a tall austrian lad....
Then they became FORD factory team with LOLA Beatrice demise.
Few wins and podium then and there but things really clicked on 1991.
A civil war within the team raged on with a lot of resignations to the dead born Reynard F1 project.
Ford got unsatisfied and the summer rose TWR came on board.
And a young german sportscar racer named "Schumacher" arrived.
The team moved to Enstone.
Success followed
Then the first fusion of the Anglo/French tales happenned for which success followed the next three years.
Then, Benetton family got board and sold the team to their french counter parts.
https://www.youtube....h?v=6PqWuzMtW8M
The french tale
Things got kicked started when french state oil company Elf order Renault to developed a turbocharged engine for F2 and sportcars back in 1972 by the genius Bernard Dudot.
Success followed up in F2 and Sports cars, which gave Renault bigger ideas so they decided to buy Alpine and Gordini.
Then they merged the competition service from both entities and called this " Renault Sport".
The factory was neither in Paris workshop or in Dieppe but in the outskirts of Paris in Viry Chatillon.
The first target was Le Mans and they duly reached the target at the third attempt.
Meanwhile Renault tried to win Le Mans they were working hands on their second project which was F1 with a turbocharged V6 which was a novelty back then.
First through the Alpine A500.
Alpine employed leaked the project in order to avoid the merger of Gordini and Alpine.
Tyrell was also rumoured to be the first team to received the V6 engine (just look at the yellow stripes).
But finally in may 1977 it was announced that Renault would take part to F1 world championship from the British Gp onwards.
The yellow tea pot was born.
Start was difficult in the first twelve months were difficult as Le Mans was the top priority
But rays of sunshine were coming.....
Jabouille qualified in the Top 3 in Austria and Italy while nearly making it to the podium in Watkins Glen.
1979, efforts were on the up and pressure to.
But at least first joy arrived in Dijon.
Between 1979 and 1981, Renault was a contender for race wins but not for the title due to poor reliability.
In 1981 a young fresh faced guy from Saint Amond named Prost, arrived and made dream french f1 fans from the first day.
The dream got close with 15 wins but never made it to the finish line.
The team declined from 1984 and the chassis closed shop by 1985 due to politics and money.
But the team kept on making pretty good turbo engines with 5 wins between 1985 and 1986.
While the prospect of Lotus being a top team again was slim and Mclaren deal fell off due to SHELL, Renault decided to pause their involvement in F1 while waiting for a top team.
They kept developing engines and when Williams lost Honda, the first british french marriage became reality.
From day one it was a contender leading in the first race and winning races in their first season.
But it became mighty from summer 1991 onwards with Newey design and relentless Renault engine power
The partnership gathered 9 titles between 1992 and 1997 plus the ones with Benetton.
In june 1996, Renault decided it had enough of success and to take a step back.
https://www.youtube....h?v=MqZKJ1JCUvg
But they came back and took Enstone over.
The first Renault F1 team era 2000-2010
Renault decided to get back in F1 with an innovative wide angle engine, lower power but better aero.
Start was tough battling with Minardi but progress went real quick over three years.
By the end of 2003, Viry was at a turning point:
- Carry with an innovative engine
- Or switch to a known quantity design engine
Bernardo Dudot who came back choosed the second option to the great despair of Jean Jacques His.
That choice paid off in 2005 thanks to smart aero computer simulation from the late Dino Toso (Rest in peace man, you changed the face of F1 simulation), Michelin tyres and the outstanding Fernando Alonso.
https://www.youtube....h?v=zM6NK-idCIY
In 2006, sucess carried on with V8.
2007 marked a decline in the team with the departure of Japan Tobacco, Alonso and Michelin.
2008 was a false back to form wih a kiss of death from crash gate.
2011-2015: each other in its own way
Between 2010 and 2013, Viry won eight titles with Red Bull, won races with Enstone and Grove.
Enstone had their fair share of success too with Kubica,Raikkonnen, Grosjean and Petrov in that period.
But everything fell off from 2014 onwards for both as Renault came unprepared to the V6 Hybrid era as they laid off too many people at Viry since 2007 while Enstone was fighting for its survival.
Both part had limited but enjoyable success.
2016-Now: the slow climb towards success
In december 2015 it was that Renault would buy back Enstone, little knew how hard to it would be to comeback.
The 2016 year was dismal even though the 2016 PU made a decent step with two wins for Red Bull it was way off Mercedes grunt and chassis was very poor.
In 2017 Hulkenberg came onboard improving the quality of driver, the chassis made a step but plateaued while the power unit was a let down unable to update the MGU K, the team reached its target of P6 in WCC.
In 2018 the team reached its target of P4 in WCC, but the car performance stagnated and deceived the management, Engine was still not up there despite 4 wins with Red Bull. Renault went big and hired Ricciardo for 2019.
2019 was a let down for the chassis and operationally which was paid with a P5 in WCC but there is light at the end of tunnel with the engine performance with a P4 and P5 at Monza, by far their results since 2016.
For 2020, wholesale change at Enstone with the departure of two key figure, and the arrival of Fry,De Beer plus Ocon on the driver roster.
The car
https://twitter.com/...316161284145154
RS20: new aerodynamics on the front expected in order to control the airflow for the bargeboards and help to settle the rear end of the car on long fast corners.
E-tech engine 2020: evolution of the 2019 spec C engine which plenty of satisfaction
The Management
Jerome Stoll is still the chairman.
Cyril Abiteboule the CEO.
Alain Prost non executive director
Budkowski the executive manager.
Nick Fry technical director at Enstone.
Remy Taffin engine technical director
The Drivers
Ricciardo a multiple grand prix winner and popular face out there, fierce overtaker mighty on street tracks.
Ocon is a young french charger aged 23, ended up P8 in his first full F1 season, great qualifyer and known for his consistancy as he is the record holder of race finishes at the start of his career.
https://twitter.com/...6351233/photo/1
The livery of the car
Expected to be a throwback from 1979
New big sponsors from Asia or Middle East are expected to come on board.
Ricciardo a multiple grand prix winner and popular face out there, fierce overtaker mighty on street tracks.
Edited by Viryfan, 02 February 2020 - 20:35.
Glad someone has sense of humor in this dark days of this team. So much money thrown into bottomless pit. 
