Renault mulls quitting sport: reports

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-06 16:28

LONDON: Renault held an emergency board meeting in Paris to discuss pulling out of Formula One, on the same day Toyota announced it was also quitting the sport, reports said yesterday.

The French car company was considering whether to remain in F1, switch to become an engine supplier, or exit the sport altogether, the BBC said.

The outcome of Wednesday's meeting, attended by F1 team bosses Bob Bell and Jean-Francois Caubet, was not immediately clear, the Guardian said.

Renault has been dogged in recent months by a race-fix scandal in which it decided not to contest charges that Nelson Piquet was ordered to deliberately crash in Singapore last year to help teammate Fernando Alonso to win.

Renault's former team boss was banned from the sport indefinitely and its chief engineer was suspended for five years.

Renault finished a dismal eighth out of 10 in the constructors' championship after the final race of the season on Sunday in Abu Dhabi.

The meeting came as F1 was left reeling by Toyota's decision to quit in response to the economic crisis, just days after tire manufacturer Bridgestone also pulled out.

Toyota said its decision to leave after this season reflected "the current severe economic realities".

Honda has already withdrawn, while Germany's BMW has announced it was leaving at the end of the season to cope with the credit crunch.

While F1 attracts millions of viewers, the amount of money it costs to run a team - estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars a year - means it has become an unaffordable luxury for some manufacturers.

AFP