F1 clustering – and the potential that creates

The days of one car company supplying just one team are now long gone, but with engines becoming important again in 2013 when the current frozen 2.4-litre V8s are discarded and a new generation of 1.6-litre engines with all manner of energy-recovery systems is introduced. Thus teams need to position themselves with the companies that they believe will best deliver the goods. Thus it is interesting to see a man from Renault sneaking in and out of Williams F1 at the weekend in Turkey for meetings with Williams’s management.

A deal with Renault was considered back in 2009 when Toyota pulled out of F1. It was felt at the time that Cosworth was a more cost-effective solution and that Williams could be the number one team for the Northampton engine firm, rather than a third-string Renault customer. It now seems that the Grove team is considering becoming Renault’s fourth team in 2012 and lining itself up for a long term relationship with the new Renault engines in 2013 and beyond.

The Williams-Renault relationship is a well-established one, dating back to 1989 when the team linked up with the French car manufacturer to run the new V10 engine. The combination resulted in four Drivers’ and five Constructors’ World Championships, until Renault’s departure from Formula 1 at the end of 1997.

Williams also took on the running of the Renault Laguna team in the British Touring Car Championship between 1995 and 1999 and won two Manufacturers’ titles and a Drivers’ title with Alain Menu. The Williams name and logo were used by Renault to brand a Renault Clio road car, but the car did not have any engineering inpur from the team.

Given the recent developments taking Williams into the automotive industry, there might be potential for a bigger commercial relationship in the future.

Renault is looking for a fourth team in 2012 to help give the firm more return on its F1 investment. The company currently supplies Red Bull Racing, Lotus Renault GP and Team Lotus.

This is certainly not a bad option, although one can imagine that Williams might also be trying to convince Tata Motors, the owners of Jaguar Land Rover, that this is a good moment to invest in F1. Formula 1 engine expertise is concentrated in four main clusters: Paris, where Renault and Peugeot have produced a string of suitable engineers; Northampton, in England, where Cosworth and Ilmor have done the same thing; the Modena area in Italy, where there is a pool of qualified racing engine men trained by firms such as Ferrari, Oral Engineering, Lamborghini, Aprilia and so on. The fourth cluster is in Germany but is split between the old engine team at Toyota in Cologne and the Mercedes/Porsche cluster in Stuttgart.

Craig Pollock’s new P.U.R.E Corporation is going to sweep up a lot of engine design talent in the Paris cluster, but there remains potential for a new F1 engine companies in the other two clusters. Tata Motors has a research and development centre near Coventry and a relationship with Williams F1, so that is a good place to start…