Promotion for Rob White and Ciaron Pilbeam returns to Renault

The financial statement for Renault’s first season as a standalone team is relatively disappointing, with only eight points scored. However, that wasn’t the main focus for the team. The priority was to get a team back on track that had been adrift for most of the 2015 season, as Cyril Abiteboul stated: “By committing to F1 in the long term, 2016 was meant to lay the groundwork for the future. The R.S.16, our car for year 1, was designed in an extremely short timeframe, just a few weeks at most. Our goal this year was therefore focused on expanding the workforce and infrastructure for the following year and beyond.”

From the beginning of the season, the team launched a vast recruitment program, which increased the team’s number of employees by 20%, both at Viry-Chatillon for the engines and at Enstone for the chassis. The English factory thus benefits from significant investments to increase the available space to boost the plant’s production capacity: « Regarding infrastructures, we are significantly increasing our on-site machining capacity with two new machines in a dedicated building and a paint and preparation installation under construction. The extension of approximately 800 m2 of our main building aimed at accommodating all growing services in Enstone will begin in the very next few weeks. »

Two individuals, in particular, are making their return to Enstone in significant positions. Rob White has completed his mission of restructuring the organization in Viry-Châtillon. He returns to England as the Operations Director. At Viry-Châtillon, we have worked on the structure by continuing the developments initiated in recent past. This means adapting it to transition from an engine supplier role to an official team role while continuing to equip other partners and making targeted recruitments to better control our skills and talents.

The second person is Ciaron Pilbeam. A connoisseur of the Enstone team, having already completed a season there in 2013, coming from Red Bull, when the team was still called Lotus. He then moved to McLaren, where he held the same position as he will now hold at Renault.

With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr