"I have no interest in F1, I'm only in it because my marketing people say I should be": When Renault CEO's attitude left Red Bull chief demotivated

Red Bull's Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey was once saddened by Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn's disinterest in F1.

In the early stages of the hybrid era, Red Bull was not able to keep up with Mercedes due to Renault's inferior engine.

Speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast in 2023, Newey recalled how he, Christian Horner, and Helmut Marko had a meeting with Ghosn in 2015 about trying to improve their car and urged the French giants to pour in more resources for their engine department. He said:

"When we went to see Carlos, then boss of Renault, Christian, Helmut, myself to kind of try to put pressure on him to up the budget and basically ask how can you free more resource so the engine division can accelerate their program. Because they all understandably saying that they were resource-limited and they needed more people and more money."

Newey stated that Ghosn's response to their demands was quite depressing. According to him, Renault's CEO blatantly said that he had no interest in F1 and was only in the sport because his marketing team advised him to.

"Ghosn's reply was, 'Well I have no interest in Formula One I'm only in it because my marketing people say I should be'. And that was such a depressing place to be," Newey said.

Red Bull and Renault had a major fallout in 2015. From 2016 to 2018, the Renault engines used by Red Bull were re-badged as TAG Heuer. After 2018, the Austrian-British team moved away from the French engines and started buying them from Honda instead.

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Adrian Newey on Renault's poor hybrid power unit and Red Bull's recovery from it

Since 2014, Red Bull and Renault's relationship has been on the decline, particularly because the latter's power units were not competetive enough. In 2023, Adrian Newey recalled that the team struggled with Renault's power units and knew that they were not going to win a championship with them.

“[You need to] have a decent engine. We went into the hybrid era and Renault got it wrong, so that was pretty depressing. You realised that in your foreseeable future if you do a spectacular job, you might snatch the odd win, but you’re never going to win a championship," he said, via F1.com

However, Newey praised his team for surviving through the period, after which they received decent engines from Honda that pushed them up the grid.

"That was a reset. I think one of the strengths of the team is that we put our heads down and got through that period, so that when once we had a good power unit again with a partnership with Honda, we were able to respond,” he said.

Renault engines were very successful before the hybrid era. They allowed Red Bull to win four consecutive Drivers' and Constructors' Championships from 2010 to 2013. It was only after 2014 that the French power units plummeted in performance.