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Ecclestone Confident in Renault Stay

After losing Toyota and BMW this season, the world of Formula One will certainly not afford losing one more car manufacturer for the 2010 campaign. Despite all the efforts made by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the teams' alliance (FOTA) to cut down costs inside the series, the lack of financial sustainability seems to be the main reason why they chose to exit the back door.

The most recent rumors regarding a potential exit from the series are linked with Renault, as the French manufacturer already announced it has planned a meeting for its board of directors for December 14.

Prior to the rookie testing session at Jerez, some reports in the media suggested that “Prodrive/David Richards and Mangrove/Gravity will take over the Enstone facility with Renault remaining an engine supplier.” Neither of those two companies have issued any official statements on the matter.

These allegations came only a few weeks after it was rumored that Russian investors are lined up to purchase approximately 40 percent of the Renault F1 operations, in exchange of a potential race seat for GP2 racer Vitaly Petrov.

However, talking to the Times newspaper on Thursday, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone insisted that not only Renault will remain in the series from 2010 onwards as an engine supplier, but the French manufacturer will also not give up its factory support in the Great Circle.

We've got to get the whole Renault thing sorted out. We are in the middle of doing it now. I feel confident that we'll see Renault next year in formula one under the name Renault and the year after and the year after that,” sounded the 79-year old's promise to the French fans of Formula 1.
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