Renault chief committed to F1 future

Renault chief Carlos Ghosn has promised to stump up the cash to maintain the company’s Formula One dominance.

Ghosn, president and chief executive of Renault, watched his team’s world champion Fernando Alonso take a superb victory in the Monaco Grand Prix yesterday to tighten his grip on another title.

The 24-year-old is already 21 points clear of nearest challenger Michael Schumacher, while Renault have 28 points between themselves and Ferrari in the constructors’ standings.

That success has come against a backdrop of rumours questioning Ghosn’s commitment to Formula One, with anything from radical budget cuts to a complete withdrawal speculated.

Renault are now committed to Formula One until 2012 and Ghosn used Monaco as the venue to deny team boss Flavio Briatore will have his hands tied by a reduced budget.

He said: “There are rumours about cost-cutting but we are the second most profitable group in the industry.

“We don’t need to adapt our strategy to our means, we can adapt our means to our strategy. The budget does not come first. We don’t say, ‘That is the budget and that is the performance we will have’.

“First we say: ’It is your responsibility to compete at the top level and win - what is the budget that you need?”’

But Ghosn warned that is no carte blanche for an unnecessary spending spree, highlighting Briatore’s skill in building a championship-winning team on a relatively modest budget.

He added: “The best people usually use a smaller budget for better results, the less successful people use a big budget with no results.

“Our people are very disciplined, they are not trying to use the fact that Renault is winning to say, ’I want more money’. They want to continue at this level and use the minimum of resources.

“I am really proud of the team getting our championship last year and competing this year with probably one of the smallest budgets. I don’t think you should be ashamed of this. I would be very embarrassed if I had the biggest budget and no results.”

Speculation over Renault’s future arose after last year’s titles did little to boost car sales – the bottom line for Ghosn, who pulled the plug on Nissan’s motorsport activities during his time there.

But, after committing Renault to a long-term future in Formula One, he insisted that issue was a problem for him, and not Briatore or team president Alain Dassas.

He added: “I always said that the challenge for Renault in Formula One was not participating, it is how you use the fall-out from Formula One to sell Renault cars.

“This is not an Alain Dassas problem or a Flavio Briatore problem – it is a Renault problem. We are competing and winning at a very high level.

“We are in Formula One and we are going to stay in Formula One, the only question is – how do you use it?”