Profile - Renault

Name: Renault F1

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After a year which brought publicity of the worst kind off the track, not to mention poor performances on it, the Renault team have a lot to prove in 2010.

Renault made its Formula One debut at the 1977 British Grand Prix and pioneered the use of turbo-charged engines which held sway during the bulk of the 1980s.

However, other manufacturers beat them to World Championship success and the original works team withdrew from the sport at the end of 1985.

Renault returned as an engine supplier between 1989 and 1997, winning World Championships with both Williams and Benetton.

Their second attempt to crack F1 as a works team came when they bought the latter outfit in 2000, with the French manufacturer taking total control in 2002.

Within weeks of purchasing the team, Renault had re-hired Flavio Briatore as team boss - the former Benetton executive having first been handed the role in 1988 - and they have continued to justify a reputation for hiring top names ever since.

Due to an under-powered engine, 2001 was a poor season for the team, although matters improved the following year when the Renault name re-appeared and their revolutionary wide V-angle engine finally produced some revs - though not nearly enough to match BMW, Ferrari or Mercedes.

Although the car was immensely driveable because of its low centre of gravity, it was also unreliable.

Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella swapped teams in 2002, with the latter getting the worst of the deal by going to Jordan just as they took a downturn in performance.

But Mike Gascoyne's technical team managed to improve the car throughout the season and, with a lightning-fast launch control system, the team consistently picked up points.

Having replaced Jenson Button for 2003 - thus enabling Briatore to have two of his personally-managed drivers in the team - former test driver Alonso proved to be year's great surprise and pressed Trulli all the way.

The Spaniard also clinched the new Renault team's first win in Hungary and firmly established himself alongside the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya as a contender to the dominant Michael Schumacher.

Yet the roles were largely reversed in the first half of the 2004 season, with Trulli enjoying a rich vein of form. It culminated in the Italian securing his first grand prix victory at Monaco in May.

However, with Trulli refusing to extend a management deal with Briatore, his place in the team was already under threat.

Relations between the two parties disintegrated and so did Jarno's performances - the Italian even claiming his car had been sabotaged.

The team said the only problem was in his head. A split was inevitable, and with three races remaining he was replaced by Jacques Villeneuve.

Alonso had rediscovered his 2003 form by this stage and the Renault team were striving, ultimately in vain, to take second place in the Constructors' Championship from BAR.

But 2005 saw the team emerge as a dominant force in the sport, with Alonso ending Schumacher's five-year reign as World Champion and Renault also taking the constructors' title away from Ferrari, who had held it ever since 1999.

Alonso claimed seven wins, eight podium finishes and the ultimate prize, the Drivers' Championship title at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Together with team-mate Fisichella, who won just one race and was dogged with reliability problems, he also clinched the Constructors' Championship for Renault as they beat McLaren by nine points.

2006 was another successful season for Alonso and Renault, who claimed back-to-back titles after a tough fight with Ferrari that went down the wire.

However, there was also some controversy during the campaign.

After a great start to the season that yielded six victories for Alonso and one for Fisichella in the first nine races, Ferrari's performance eventually caught up.

Renault were also dealt a further blow by the FIA who declared their mass damper suspension technology to be illegal.

Robbed of an intrinsic part of their R26 car's design, the team saw Ferrari take an even bigger slice off their lead.

A failing wheel nut ruined Alonso's chances in Hungary, where the team suffered a double DNF, and a rare engine failure for the champion in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza handed more points to Schumacher.

But Renault bounced back in the final three races of the season, where two second places and a victory in Japan handed Alonso his second world title, while Fisichella's efforts also helped them secure the Constructors' Championship.

However, with Alonso off to join McLaren-Mercedes, the team struggled during 2007 with an R27 car whose aerodynamic performance was hindered by a switch from Michelin to Bridgestone tyres.

Whether Alonso's presence might have boosted the team's performance will never be known. However, with Fisichella and rookie driver Heikki Kovalainen driving, Renault could not repeat the results of the previous two seasons.

After a tentative start to his F1 career it was Kovalainen who eventually started to bring home the points for Renault. He even clinched the team's only podium finish of the season, a second place in Japan.

But, even with the Finn's improving performances, it was evident that Renault were missing something.

And deciding it may just be their two-time World Champion Alonso, the team re-signed him for the 2008 season, dropping Fisichella to make space.

They also opted to replace Kovalainen - who headed to McLaren - with another rookie, Nelson Piquet Jr., who previous acted as Renault's reserve driver.

Alonso started 2008 well enough, finishing fourth in the season opener in Melbourne.

But, aside from the occasional flourish - the Spaniard qualifying on the front row of his home grand prix - that was just about as good as it got for Renault early on.

The team languished in the bottom half of the constructors' table, their struggle to improve the R28 measured by the fact that even Alonso was struggling to earn points finishes.

Piquet, meanwhile, had a to-say-the-least difficult start to his F1 career and racked up a string of DNFs - questions even being asked as to whether the Brazilian might be replaced.

He eventually broke his duck at the French GP and was then gifted a second-place finish in the German Grand Prix following an intervention from the Safety Car.

Things started to click for Renault on the Championship run-in as their car came on leaps and bounds in comparison to its rivals.

In fact, Alonso was the form driver during the closing races of 2008, his back-to-back victories in Singapore and Japan helping the team jump up to fourth in the Constructors' Championship.

With speculation still linking him with a long-term move to Ferrari, Alonso stayed on for 2009 - the team also deciding to retain Piquet.

But if Renault thought their late-season form would be a springboard to success in 2009, they had another thing coming as the team instead found themselves in the middle of one of the worst scandals to hit the sport.

On track, the R29's lack of pace was such that the team were relying on Alonso to pick up the odd points finish here and there - fifth places in Australia and Spain being his best results during early races.

He then used a light fuel load to grab pole position in Hungary but all hell broke loose in the race when Alonso left the pits with a wheel that hadn't been properly fitted.

The tyre fell off shortly after he returned to the track and mindful of Felipe Massa's accident in one day earlier in qualifying, stewards handed Renault a one-race ban.

The suspension meant that Alonso would miss the European Grand Prix on home soil in Valencia and when Renault appealed, the decision was overturned.

Piquet's last appearance for the team also came in Hungary, after which the Brazilian, who had failed to pick up a point all season, was sacked.

However, the move set in motion a series of events that shed light on the true nature of the team's victory in Singapore the previous season - and ended with the French manufacturer considering its future in the sport.

After Piquet's sacking, he approached the FIA to claim he had been asked to deliberately crash his car in the race and with an investigation being launched, Renault were ordered to appear before a World Motor Sport Council meeting.

Team boss Briatore denied the allegations levelled against him but he and Pat Symonds were to leave Renault before September's hearing - the team deciding not to contest the charges.

That decision proved to be the saving grace for Renault as they were handed a suspended two-year ban from F1.

Briatore, meanwhile, was handed a life ban while Symonds received a five-year suspension, but both were later overtuned pending the outcome of an FIA appeal.

On the track, Piquet's replacement, Romain Grosjean, arrived with much fanfare but failed to perform any better, although Alonso did at least give the team their best reault of the year - a third place in, ironically, Singapore.

He was soon off to pastures new, however, with the much anticipated announcement finally coming of a switch to Ferrari for 2010.

Renault was undoubtedly shaken by the scandal and there were signs it might follow Honda, BMW and Toyota and withdraw from F1.

Instead, the French manufacturer decided to sell a stake in the team - said to be in the region of 75 per cent - to Luxembourg based investment company Genii Capital.

The highly-rated Robert Kubica joins the team alongside rookie Vitaly Petrov for the 2010 season - one which all at Enstone will doubtless be hoping can bring plenty in the way of improvement.