Renault CEO hints that carmaker may leave F1

There will be considerable disquiet in the upper echelons of Formula 1 after comments made by Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn in an interview with Forbes India magazine in which the businessman, who also heads up Nissan, suggested that the French automaker might pull out of the sport ahead of the 2010 season. At present Renault has said they will make a decision about their F1 team before the end of the year, but Ghosn doesn't send out hopeful messages.

"F1 is one of the most-seen spectacles in the world," he told Forbes. "It 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." Chiefly, the interviewer suggested, whether the motorsport would continue to form a part of Renault's business.

"I don't think it is going to be very important for anybody, if it doesn’t answer some of the concerns that surround F1," Ghosn replied. "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."

Blogger Joe Saward suggests that Ghosn is "already formulating excuses to use when he announces that Renault is getting out of F1" and warns that the sport's ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone will try to enforce an agreement signed by all the teams this year committing them to the sport for three years. "Renault signed the Concorde Agreement and thus is legally bound to stay in F1 until 2012. It can break that agreement or sidestep it by trying to sell the team, but what does that say about the company?"

Meanwhile former Renault team principal Flavio Briatore begins his appeal today in a French court against the life ban he was handed from Formula 1 for his role in the Crashgate scandal. Briatore is claiming that the sport's governing body the FIA overstepped the mark in the punishments that they issued for him and the team's chief engineer Pat Symonds. A decision is expected in early January. ·