Renault has not been paid by some customers

On the occasion of the first European Grand Prix of the season, Jean-Michel Jalinier provided an update to the French press. He began by reviewing the progress of this very complicated start of the season for the French engine manufacturer: We started from a situation where we were very far from the leaders, which required the immediate implementation of a crisis action plan, on which we have placed all our resources and which has become our only priority. This resulted in the implementation of countermeasures throughout the Grand Prix in order to quickly recover and get closer to Mercedes as soon as possible.

Rob White, the technical director of the engine manufacturer, also explained that one of the main difficulties for Renault is that it must provide solutions to on-track incidents that are valid for all teams and all drivers. However, some solutions are incompatible with the integration planned by certain teams.

The leaders of Viry-Châtillon have also stated that the freeze on engine development from a performance standpoint, in effect since the end of February, does not prevent optimizing performance management over a lap, which is an essential element in qualifying. Engine manufacturers have an almost unlimited margin for maneuver in this area, whereas for pure performance aspects, Renault must obtain prior approval from the FIA. Additionally, modification requests issued by an engine manufacturer are transmitted to its competitors: Ferrari and Mercedes see our requests just as I see requests from Ferrari and Mercedes.

But now that the situation is stabilizing, the question of funding for this action plan arises. From this perspective, Renault laments that some of its clients do not honor their financial commitments: « To develop this action plan, we need to secure resources, and our resources come from two sources. The first is Renault, and we have been able to obtain the right resources, whether human or financial. »

But Renault is a supplier to the teams, which must pay the bill stipulated in the contract that binds them to the engine manufacturer. However, this second aspect does not seem to be fully respected: « The second part comes from the teams because we sell them engines. From this point of view, I must say that we are in a situation that is not acceptable because some teams are behind on their payments. At the moment, we must put in place the necessary resources to catch up on our backlog; we cannot afford these delays. »

When questioned about the issue at the press conference, Franz Tost from Toro Rosso and Cyril Abiteboul from Caterham claimed that their respective situations were normal. However, Caterham and Lotus do not hide the financial difficulties they have been suffering from for several months, and it can be assumed that the message was directly aimed at them since Red Bull benefits from a privileged partnership with the presence of Infiniti, the luxury brand of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, as a title sponsor.

From our special correspondent in Barcelona