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Renault s 2009 IT budget to suffer

Renault s IT department will bear some of the brunt of cost-cutting measures planned for the future of F1, the team have revealed. Speaking to ACN, the team s IT manager Graham Hackland today spoke of the knock-on effects of the global economic crisis on world motorsport and also his particular concern.

We ve seen Honda pull out of F1, Kawasaki pulling out of MotoGP and some of the WRC teams pulling out. The situation is serious, not just for Renault but for all the teams. What we have done is get together as the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA). They ve made proposals on how they can cut costs and take out the things that are really not adding benefits to the spectators but are costing the teams lots of money.

He did, however, emphasise that Renault are well-placed to survive the financial turbulence. The French manufacturer is believed to be fairly healthy in terms of its road car sales. Meanwhile, the race team has long had a justified reputation for efficiency with its F1 spending.

“We re going to see significant cuts this year. In terms of our company, we re in a strong position. We re not known as a team which wastes funding. When we won the championship in 2005 and 2006, we had about the fifth or sixth biggest budget. There s not a huge amount of fat in the company in terms of people or resources.”

Renault are to launch their 2009 challenger on 19 January.

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