Renault can afford to win
ByReuters
Published 29/05/2006 at 14:14 GMT
Renault chief executive Carlos Ghosn has assured the Formula One team chief Flavio Briatore that he will have the money he needs to keep on winning after a triumphant weekend in Monaco where defending champion Fernando Alonso won the grand prix to take hi
2006 Monaco GP Renault Dassas Ghosn Briatore
Image credit: From Official Website
World champion Fernando Alonso was victorious in the season's showcase race for the French manufacturers on Sunday while Ghosn repeated that Renault were committed to remaining competitive in the sport.
"We are performance driven. Period," he told reporters. "Get the performance and then we discuss budgets. "The budget does not come first. We tell Flavio that performance is our first responsibility -- compete at the top level and win."
Renault say their Formula One budget is considerably less than some of their rivals, such as Toyota who are estimated to have spent well over $1 billion since their debut in 2002.
Ghosn, who took over the top job at Renault last year with a reputation as a cost-cutter, made clear that costs would remain tightly controlled however.
"The most gifted people usually use smaller budgets for bigger results," he said. "I would be very embarrassed if I had the biggest budget and no results."
Champions Renault have won five of the seven races so far and this month joined other manufacturers in committing long-term to the sport.
The Renault CEO said his vision of Formula One's future was to put on a show for the public without allowing the sport to become dominated by technology.
"Formula One should not be something which is under the control of engineers. This is something which should be for the public," he declared.
Renault's biggest challenge, he said, was to use the track success to increase sales in the showrooms.
"If you had seen the Nissan line-up in 1999 and you see the Nissan line-up in 2006, its completely different," said Ghosn, who is also chief executive of the Japanese car company 44 percent owned by Renault.
"And this has been systematic investments and work done into building up the brand and making exciting products which have been big hits on the market.
"That was the story between 1999 and 2006 for Nissan. Now I'm telling you, you are going to have a story which is different but hopefully as strong if not stronger from the Renault side which started in 2005.
"You are going to see a lot of products coming. These products are going to be mainly supported, advertised by what we are doing in Formula One.
"Because I am very confident about the products coming from the Renault side, that's why we think that in Formula One we need to compete at a very high level in order to sustain the products we have coming."
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