In a bid to be able to fight against the best teams in Formula 1, the Renault Sport Formula 1 squad are planning to expand its workforce to around 650 employees by the end of 2017.
Since returning to the sport for the first time as a manufacturer since 2010, the French squad are looking to bring in a number of employees to make up the shortfall in comparison to teams such as Mercedes or Red Bull Racing.
The Lotus F1 Team, who Renault took back over at the end of 2015 after months of negotiations, were forced to cut back on its own workforce due to budgetary shortfalls, but now the team are once again a manufacturer by right, Renault managing director Cyril Abiteboul reckons the workforce will grow once more.
“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,” said Abiteboul.
“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.
“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.”
