The newly reformed Renault Sport F1 team have stated they are looking to bring in over 160 new members of staff over the next two years to try and return the team to the top of Formula One.
The French car manufacturer has bought back Lotus F1 team which was severely understaffed after major losses from the 2013 season forced the team to lay off staff.
Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul was asked by AUTOSPORT on the number of staff the team had signed since the manufacturer’s involvement began in December.
He stated: “Very few for now.
“We want to make sure we recruit good people, and usually good people are not available very quickly because they have to be placed on gardening leave, and you can’t get them for six months, or sometimes a year.
“Right now we have 490 people in Enstone. The plan is to grow to 650 by the end of 2017.
“The biggest teams have 800 people, and we think we will be in a position to compete against those – and I’m referring to Mercedes, Red Bull – with 650 people at Enstone.
“How we will do this is by sharing a lot of activities between Viry and Enstone.
“We believe we will be able to match the other teams, even though we will have fewer people on site.”
With Renault back as a full-time entry, Abiteboul is convinced the team will be able to make high profile signings to further boost their chances at Formula One success.
“To attract people from competitors you need to have a story,” said Abiteboul.
“Now there is a landmark to start telling the story about Renault, the plans, the management, the financial resources, the partners, the long-term prospects.
“Now we have a plan, so hopefully we will be able to attract the talent.”
The Frenchman was also quick to point out the strength of their engine department at Viry, despite receiving heavy criticism by Red Bull last season for providing an uncompetitive and unreliable engine compared to Ferrari and Mercedes.
“Frankly, we feel we have more than enough resources in Viry,” he said.
“I know the perception from some people, some of the things said by Red Bull, was that we don’t have enough resources.
“We have enough financial and human resources. It’s about technical leadership, it’s about know-how, skills.
“What happened at Viry is we had to recruit an awful lot of people for this new regulation [the 1.6-litre V6 engines].
“The problem is when you have new, young people, fresh from university, you have to train them.
“Now they are trained, up to speed, motivated for this new project, and they will have more than enough to do the job we need to do.”
With this season marking their return to the grid for the first time since 2010, and ten years since their last world title, Renault will be looking for a return to success sooner rather than later and their experience should allow the struggling Enstone team to achieve the results they deserve.
