Renault to sell controlling F1 stake to David Richards

A face-saving compromise deal has been reached that will mean a team racing under the famous Renault name can compete in next season's Formula 1 championship. The French car-maker will sell a controlling stake in their underperforming team to David Richards, the chairman of Aston Martin and owner of the engineering group Prodrive. Richards will then put out a team racing under the Renault name.

The deal is a considerable relief to Formula 1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone, who was involved in the negotiations, as it means the sport is spared the shock of seeing another car-maker pull out of F1 (Toyota having decided to leave in November). It also saves Renault the legal battles they would have been pitched into had they attempted to close down their racing arm. [As co-signees of the Concorde agreement between Ecclestone and the teams, they committed to staying in the sport until 2012.]

Renault have endured a nightmarish 12 months in Formula 1. On the track they have been uncompetitive, finishing eighth in the constructors' championships with just 26 points - an awful performance for a team that won consecutive championships as recently as 2005 and 2006. Off the track they have had their reputation dragged through the mud by the Crashgate scandal which eventually saw team principal Flavio Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds thrown out of motorsport.

It came as no surprise when Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault, recently hinted that they would pull out of the sport.  "F1 is facing some challenges: Challenges on how fair it is and how do you marry F1 with the environmental concerns? Can you bring zero emission through technology? So there are lots of questions about F1," he told Forbes magazine.

When pressed about Renault's future in the sport, Ghosn said: "I don't think [F1] is going to be very important for anybody, if it doesn’t answer some of the concerns that surround it. I notice that in the last year, three car manufacturers have bowed out of F1. Three in one year! That means there are a lot of questions that we need to resolve." 

David Richards, who previously ran the Benetton and BAR teams, has been keen to re-enter the sport for some time. Negotiations with Renault have been ongoing for the last two months. It is not known what he paid for his stake, but with no other deal on the table and Renault looking for an escape route from the sport, it may turn out to be quite a bargain.

Bernie Ecclestone wouldn't talk about the deal, but told the Times: "We've got to get the whole Renault thing sorted out. We are in the middle of doing it now. I feel confident that we'll see Renault next year in Formula 1 under the name Renault and the year after and the year after that." ·