Renault celebrates 40 years

As the Renault team prepares for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend, the French manufacturer is celebrating 40 years of success, passion and pride in Formula One. The success story began in 1977 with the RS01 model and is still very much alive today with Renault’s two drivers, Carlos Sainz Jr. and Nico Hülkenberg currently sitting in 9th and 12th place respectively ahead of the Abu Dhabi event, which will take place at Yas Marina Circuit from the 24th – 26th November.

Renault’s decision to enter the Formula One world was made in 1975 but the team’s first race didn’t come until 1977. For the management during this period, entry into Formula One allowed Renault to introduce advance engine technology to the sport and use a turbo-compressed engine, which had never been done in Formula One before.

A few years later, the turbo was used by the other racing teams, and today, modern Formula One cars are equipped with the technology which Renault was first to bring to the race series. Renault celebrated its first Formula One victory just two years later, in 1979, at the Grand Prix de France in Dijon with the RS10.

The victory of Jean-Pierre Jabouille, engineer and driver of the RS10, was a showcase of Renault’s will and ambition. This success and the many more that followed validated the concept of the turbo in Formula One and won the respect of the British teams, led by the Tyrell team. To celebrate its 40th anniversary at the pinnacle of motorsport, the French automotive manufacturer has revived an anecdote from the past by creating 40 limited edition “Yellow Teapots”. The Yellow

Teapot is a nod to how the introduction of revolutionary technologies by Renault sometimes incurred technical difficulties and reliability problems. Ken Tyrrell, the boss of the team, famously yelled out the nickname “Yellow Teapot” after seeing the RS10 smoking as it passed in front of his garage. The expression was adopted by members of his team, and soon by other teams in the paddock. The RS01 was thereafter nicknamed ‘The Yellow Teapot’.

In terms of design, the Yellow Teapots are inspired by the past and present; with creative nods to the 1977 RS01 and today’s RS17, even going as far as using the official Renault F1 paint. It’s a teapot that takes up all the aesthetic codes of Renault Formula One and plays on the design, graphics and colours - dominant yellow, black, and white.