1977 British GP: Renault’s F1 debut
Renault made its world championship debut with F1’s first-ever turbocharged car, the RS01, which earned the ‘yellow teapot’ moniker due to the frequency at which smoke emanated from it.
The sole Renault entry at Silverstone was also the only one using Michelin tyres, with the remainder of the field on Goodyears.
In a 36-strong field, Jean-Pierre Jabouille qualified 21th, 1.62s off pole position, but endured a cracked inlet manifold on lap 12 and pitted for repairs, before the turbo failed after 16 laps.
1979 French GP: Patient Jabouille takes Renault’s first victory
Jabouille had his fair share of hardship in Renault’s early days, with 17 retirements in the brand’s first 24 race starts.
But he went on to win the French Grand Prix at Dijon-Prenois, taking Renault’s and his own maiden victory after surpassing early race leader Gilles Villeneuve, in a race that has been more famous for the Canadian’s breathtaking, wheel-to-wheel battle with Renault’s Rene Arnoux for second place.
1983: Prost narrowly misses out on world title
Wins became more and more frequent for Renault, with Alain Prost prevailing at Le Castellet, Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone and the Oesterreichring (now known as the Red Bull Ring) in 1983, at which point he led the championship by 14 points – with a victory worth nine.
Prost however retired from three of the last four grands prix, twice with turbo issues, losing the title to Piquet by two points.
1985 Portuguese GP: Senna takes sensational win as Renault prepares first F1 exit
From 1983 to 1986, Renault also supplied its F1 engines to customers – first Lotus, then Ligier too, with Tyrrell eventually taking the French powertrains as well.
Lotus had won just one grand prix since Mario Andretti’s title-winning campaign in 1978, but Ayrton Senna gave the famed team its first triumph since Colin Chapman’s death as he dominated a wet Estoril race, winning the Portuguese Grand Prix by more than one minute.
Renault left F1 as a constructor at the end of the 1985, but still provided powertrains to all three of its customers in 1986.
1989: Renault returns to F1 as engine supplier
Renault returned to Formula 1 as Williams’ engine supplier, switching from its previous V6 turbo powertrain to a normally aspirated V10.
Both Thierry Boutsen and Riccardo Patrese retired with technical issues in the season-opening race at Jacarepagua, but Boutsen took two victories that year. Both drivers shared another two wins in 1990, then Nigel Mansell replaced the Belgian to become Ayrton Senna’s main challenger; driving Adrian Newey’s FW14, he took five wins and three second positions in 1991.
1992: Mansell wins Renault’s first title
Renault added Ligier to its portfolio of teams in 1992, but Williams set the tone with Mansell-Patrese 1-2s in the opening three grands prix; the Englishman won the first five races of the season and was crowned a world champion as early as the Hungarian Grand Prix, in mid-August.
1993: Prost takes historic fourth crown
Williams’ dominance continued in 1993, with Mansell replaced by Alain Prost.
The Frenchman comfortably saw his rivals off, winning seven of the first 10 grands prix to score more points than anybody would by the end of the year. Stalling in Hungary and an engine failure at Monza meant he wasn’t officially crowned until Estoril, in late September.
1994: Hill loses title to Schumacher after Senna’s death
Prost retired at the end of the 1993 season, paving the way for Ayrton Senna to join Williams from a struggling McLaren outfit, but the Brazilian legend died in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix.
Inexperienced Damon Hill inherited the team leader status in a dominant but tricky FW16, and lost the title in a controversial collision with championship rival Michael Schumacher at Adelaide – where returnee Mansell won. Williams-Renault still took the honours in the constructors’ championship.
1995: Schumacher takes second title in a row with Benetton
Benetton switched from Ford-Cosworth to Renault engines for 1995, meaning the French brand powered the fastest two cars that year. Benetton and Williams won 16 of the 17 grands prix, with Ferrari’s Jean Alesi taking his only F1 victory on his birthday in Montreal, after a late gearbox issue for Schumacher.
The German still won the title fairly easily, winning more than half the races himself.
1996 French GP: Renault’s historic 1-2-3-4
The Renault powered-teams’ dominance, though Benetton was on a downward slope, culminated at the 1996 French Grand Prix. Williams took a 1-2 with Hill leading rookie Jacques Villeneuve, followed by Benetton’s Alesi and Gerhard Berger for a 1-2-3-4.
Williams returned to championship glory as Damon Hill clinched the drivers’ title while the team won 12 of 16 races.
1997: Villeneuve wins title in controversy, Renault exits F1 again
Williams’ final Newey-designed car wasn’t as dominant as its predecessor, and Ferrari was on the rise after Jean Todt put together a dream team, so the 1997 was a closely contested duel between Villeneuve and Schumacher. The Canadian came out on top in the last race, at Jerez, where Schumacher drove into the Williams in a failed attempt to take it out of the race.
As early as June 1996, Renault decided to leave F1 at the end of the 1997 season, with its constant winning meaning diminishing marketing returns. Its powertrain remained used under the Mecachrome (Williams in 1998), Supertec (Williams and BAR in 1999, Arrows in 2000) and Playlife (Benetton from 1998 to 2000) monikers. The outdated engine still took one pole and 12 podiums in three years.
2002: Renault returns as fully-fledged constructor
Renault purchased the Benetton outfit in March 2000, gave the team its new V10 engine for 2001 and rebranded it as Renault from 2002 onwards. Its first grand prix back, in Melbourne, ended in a double retirement as Jenson Button was caught up in the first-lap mayhem while Jarno Trulli crashed out a few laps later.
Renault claimed fourth in the championship but scored just 23 points and failed to record a single podium finish.
2003 Hungarian GP: Alonso brings Renault back on top
Renault was on the rise in 2003. Fernando Alonso and Trulli locked out the front row in Malaysia, then the young Spaniard won the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position as Jaguar’s Mark Webber, who snatched second place at the start, backed the pack up behind him.
By the time Kimi Raikkonen cleared Webber, he was already more than 20 seconds down on Alonso, who led the Finn by 17 seconds under the chequered flag and even lapped five-time world champion Schumacher.
2005: Alonso becomes F1’s youngest world champion
Renault took another victory with Jarno Trulli in the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix before becoming a real title contender with its R25.
Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren MP4-20 was faster but lacked reliability, paving the way for Alonso to clinch the title at Interlagos before the French brand was crowned world constructors’ champion in the Shanghai season finale.
2006: Alonso beats Schumacher to world title in fascinating duel
Ferrari returned to success in 2006, in a closely contested season where Schumacher ate into Alonso’s early lead as Renault gradually lost competitiveness – partly due to mass dampers being outlawed by the FIA.
The two title contenders tackled the penultimate round of the season level on points at Suzuka, where Schumacher led his rival until his engine failed, giving Alonso a 10-point lead. Even if the seven-time world champion won in Brazil, all the Spaniard had to do was score a point; Alonso finished second at Interlagos, Schumacher fourth after a puncture.
Renault won the constructors’ title by just five points against Ferrari.
2008 Singapore GP: Alonso wins, but Crashgate leads to Renault’s disgrace
F1’s move to new technical rules and a single tyre supplier, Bridgestone, didn’t pan out fantastically for Renault, which had been using Michelin rubber. 2007 yielded a single podium finish, courtesy of Heikki Kovalainen, before Alonso returned to the fold alongside Nelson Piquet Jr after curtailing his McLaren experience.
Renault lay fifth in the standings before the Singapore Grand Prix, on equal points with fourth-placed Toyota, and had high hopes for the Marina Bay race, but a technical issue prevented Alonso from setting a time in Q2, leaving him down in 15th.
Team principal Flavio Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds came up with a plan: Alonso pitted on lap 12 and his team-mate Piquet crashed on lap 14, bringing out the safety car.
Back in 2008, when a race was neutralised, the pitlane remained closed until all cars were gathered behind the safety car. Therefore, Alonso found himself in the lead when everyone pitted, and won the race. The conspiracy only emerged one year later, leading to Renault hastily withdrawing in disgrace.
2010-2013: Vettel and Red Bull take Renault’s last title-winning honours
Red Bull got Renault engines from 2008 onwards, with those powertrains also used by Lotus/Caterham from 2011 and Williams from 2012.
Red Bull conquered F1 during those four years, with Vettel winning four consecutive titles – two of which, 2010 and 2012, were close calls. Renault powered-cars took 44 wins (41 by Red Bull, two by the Enstone-based Lotus and one by Williams) in 77 grands prix.
2014: Renault struggles amid switch to hybrid power units
F1 switched to hybrid V6 turbo powertrains for 2014. All engine manufacturers struggled with reliability, but Mercedes was dominant while Renault struggled.
The French brand still took all three non-Mercedes grand prix wins as Daniel Ricciardo won in Canada, Hungary and Belgium for Red Bull, but Toro Rosso, Lotus and Caterham rarely troubled the points-scoring positions.
2016: Renault returns as constructor
Renault returned to F1 again in 2016, aiming at podiums by 2018 and a title challenge by 2020.
The 2016 campaign yielded just eight points. Things got better in the next few years, with one podium in 2019 and a few more in 2020 – far from the initial goal.
Meanwhile, Caterham folded, and Red Bull and Toro Rosso defected to Honda, while McLaren switched to Renault after a bruising experience with the Japanese manufacturer – and soon was more competitive than the factory team.
2021 Hungarian GP: Ocon gives Renault its last victory
In 2021, the Renault outfit morphed into the Alpine brand, which belongs to the French carmaker, with no other cars powered by Renault engines.
Shortly before Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi launched his ill-advised 100-race plan to reach the top of F1 (this was 98 grands prix ago, and Alpine just finished last in 2025 the constructors’ championship), Esteban Ocon won a memorable Hungarian Grand Prix. The Frenchman made the most of a first-corner pile-up to impeccably lead throughout, benefitting from team-mate Fernando Alonso’s hard-fought resistance against a resurgent Lewis Hamilton.
2025: Renault forgoes its legacy
Despite backlash from the Viry-Chatillon factory, Renault CEO Luca de Meo (who has since left the company) made the decision to switch to Mercedes power for 2026, unceremoniously ending a nearly five-decade-old story in poor fashion – as a clear backmarker with some of the team’s worst results ever.
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