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The Renault F1 team has two potential buyers - and the firm's board is likely to decide which one to sell to next week.

The French car manufacturer's executive committee met in Paris yesterday to discuss the future plans for the team, ahead of a crunch board meeting next week.

It is understood to have decided to sell the team, and is now investigating offers from Prodrive and a Luxembourg investment fund, Genii Capital.

Autosport.com reports Genii Capital's plan is to take f...Read the full article

 The Team would like Dave Richards in charge, as he ran the team under Benetton guise for a while, so it would be a meeting of known individuals, with a knowledge of how to create a competitive package. Investment funds invariably will take what they can get i.e. build it up to sell it on, that is what an investment company does. Money doesn't always equal a winning combination...Toyota anyone?

Bernie is looking at: Genii Capitol; short term win versus Prodrive, less money, but a more stable working environment, longer term plan and management that has been there before. If I was on the books there I know which I would prefer..

 The same thing has happened in Football, investors see it as a quick win, once they realise that it takes time, they start getting itchy feet, and the finance controller can no longer justify the investment. Asset stripping and bones of a dead company are left. Not good.

Not sure I would want to be Renault with an 'officially' branded Renault on the grid  with little or no control over the running of the way the team works (PR, Marketing ect.)

Finally, I can see this as a first step for Aston Martin as brand stepping into the fore, Via Richards (if Richards gets Renault), I don't think this takes a genius to work out. Won't be in the first season, they will wait to see how things go. Will wait to see if the 'DBRF1' reaches the grid or not.

Eddie79:

Not sure I would want to be Renault with an 'officially' branded Renault on the grid  with little or no control over the running of the way the team works (PR, Marketing ect.)

Don't forget that Prodrive ran Subaru's official WRC team very successfully for years, so there is no reason why they couldn't do the same for Renault's F1 team.  Unless it is Prodrive who are insistent on re-branding it under their own name.

I get the impression from the article that it IS Prodrive insisting on renaming the team. As for Bernie's motivation, I don't think it short-termism in the way suggested, so much as another kind in that Bernie knows how damaging 'ANOTHER MANUFACTURER QUITS F1' will be in the headlines. Even if they're not as well placed as Prodrive, being able to hold the press story that 'Renault' have quit F1 for a little longer is all he'll be thinking about. Either way I feel sorry for Kubica. The guy's a superstar and deserves better than a career with BMW and now Renault has given him.

 so Renault are trying to quit F1 after all. That will just leave Ferrari and Mercedes. I'm not sure why Prodrive wants an F1 team, as it seems to be a recipe for disaster. And what happens when F1 has no tyre suppliers. That will be fun.

No fighting on this site. You can get banned.

Thank you.

After BMW and Toyota, now Renault...

Thank you M and B.

Thank you too the bankers for the crisis (I stop there may be bankers who read ;-)) and the spanish ones to allow Raïkkonen to go in WRC in 2010.

I was afraid that news even before the crashgate. Carlos Gohsn ruled. It makes no sense.

 And next year, Mercedes perhaps...

I think something has broken in F1 this year. And perhaps for ever.

The future is dark here in France. It is hard to build a new F1 track. We can not do anything here. With opposition justified or not. Long live the demagoguery.
Even historical tracks are threatened by residents recently installed (Clermont Ferrand :-()..
Thank you for having created an "autophobe" climate.

Wrong thread.