Recently, Renault e.Dams Formula E Team announced that they will be stepping away from Formula E at the end of Season 4 to focus on their Formula One programme and consequently, Nissan would come in to replace them.
Over the past three seasons, Renault has proved that they have some of the best parts across the grid by winning the Constructors’ Championship thrice. However, they will be leaving Formula E to devote more resources to their Formula One programme.
From Season 5 onwards, Nissan will replace Renault in Formula E
But should they entirely dissolve their Formula E programme?
The answer is no. Instead of having their own team, Renault could become a parts supplier and work towards improving their powertrain and provide it to customer teams like Techeetah.
Consequently, they may generate a huge sum of money just by selling their power units and if they are successful in proving that their technology is superior, they may transfer it to their road cars, with that being the main objective of all the manufacturers who enter Formula E .
Renault supplies their powertrains to Techeetah, who took their first win last year
This way, they can avoid the costs of running their own Formula E team, increasing their profit margin and they can also launch an all-new division of EVs which will use the same technology used in their Formula E cars.
The only real struggle that the French manufacturer may face to execute this plan will be finding customers for their power units. In the next few years, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche are entering Formula E as factory teams and as a result, the costs of running a team will increase as their big budgets will lead to an inflation in the market.
DS Automobiles used the technology that they use in their Formula E cars to make the DS E-Tense
Since the series will become expensive to compete in, there will be an abundance of manufacturers instead of privateer teams, who will struggle to shell out money like the manufacturers. With less privateers competing in the series, Renault will have less potential customers and they may need to pull the plug on their plan.
If they can find a solution to the same, Renault can increase the profits earned by the Motorsport Division by a big sum and influence their shareholders to invest more into racing, which will eventually lead to the Renault legacy continuing in the motorsport industry.
Multiple manufacturers such as Porsche, Mercedes and BMW will join Formula E in the near future
Despite the fact that Renault have made a backward step by deciding to focus more on Formula One, this does not necessarily mean that their involvement with Formula E is completely over; they can sell their powertrains and can also return to the series in the future, when they think that the time will be right.
So, if you are a Formula E fan, don’t worry about Renault leaving, there will be loads of new teams coming to the series and in one way or the other, Renault will be involved in Formula E and it’s development!
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