Hit hard by the crash-gate earlier this year – causing two major sponsors to withdraw their financial support for the Enstone based team with immediate effect – the French manufacturer seems to have had enough with the big spending of Formula One and are currently looking for a buyer for their F1 operations.
However, that isn't to mean Renault will also stop providing power plants for customer teams, as they'll continue to supply engines for the teams who choose to partner them in the series. For the time being, only Red Bull Racing are using Renault units in Formula One, with the contract being due to expire at the end of this year (it's currently under scrutiny by the Milton Keynes team).
According to the Swiss publication Motorsport Aktuell, there are already 2 buyers lined up to purchase the Enstone organization.
“One buyer was identified as Gerard Lopez, co-founder of venture capital firm Mangrove, and the other a Russian by the name of Andrej Krajnik, who is linked with the existing Renault sponsor Megafon,” said a report from the aforementioned publication, as noted by the GMM news agency.
A few months before the entire crash-gate scandal blew up in their faces, Renault was also considering the possibility of selling their F1 team to manager Flavio Briatore, Brawn GP-style. However, this was soon out of the question, as the 59-year old Italian has been banned for life from all the FIA-sanctioned competition in the meantime.
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone sure has no plans to end the drama before the end of the season, as he previously told the media, during the Brazilian GP last weekend, that he “just talked to a guy who wants to buy one of the teams.” With Jenson Button already world champion, someone had to step in an make sure the newspapers will have something to write about until after the Abu Dhabi finale.
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