Five of the seven United Kingdom-based Formula 1 teams have now furloughed staff as part of cost-cutting measures through the Job Retention Scheme set up by the British Government.
The Renault DP World F1 Team and Haas F1 Team are the latest to announce their plans to reduce outgoings by signing up for the scheme in order to save money during the coronavirus pandemic that has seen Formula 1 cancel or postpone nine rounds of the season.
The McLaren F1 Team, BWT Racing Point F1 Team and ROKit Williams Racing have already announced their plans to save money during the virus outbreak.
Renault, which has bases in both Viry-Châtillon in France and Enstone in the United Kingdom, have opted to furlough employees in this country while reducing the work load in France to a part-time schedule in a bid to save the team some income during the downtime that has been enforced due to COVID-19.
Renault will ensure that those in the United Kingdom will get topped up with their wages to the 80% of the actual pay that the government would receive, with management staff also taking the same pay deduction for the time being.
“The very difficult human and sanitary circumstances that we are experiencing and the strict lockdown in France and England, as well as in most of the Grand Prix-organising countries, do not yet allow us to measure the impact on our sport,” said Cyril Abiteboul, the Managing Director of the Renault DP World F1 Team.
“We therefore must use all the measures at our disposal to get through this prolonged period of uncertainty and inactivity as best as we can, while protecting the whole team we have built over the past four years.”
Renault joined McLaren, Williams and Racing Point in joining the Government scheme, while the Haas Team has also signed up, which will affect the majority of their UK-based employees. The fate of those working in their factory in the United States of America has yet to be determined.
The only two teams in the United Kingdom not to have furloughed any staff are Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
Formula 1 teams are currently in an enforced shutdown as a result of the coronavirus, with all ten teams on the grid having to close their factories for thirty-five days before the end of May.
