A new buyer for Renault: could Dmitry Mazepin save the team?
The Enstone team appears to be in the sights of the Russian businessman Dmitry Mazepin.
Renault is part of the Formula 1 teams that are most affected by the financial crisis.
The closure of Renault car factories around France is not a good sign, this will mean that the Formula 1 team could be at risk in the championship.
Indeed, Renault expects to make financial cuts of $2.2 billion, but this will be made clear later this week.
It must be said that F1's decision to cut the budget limit brings hope to the teams with more difficulties and, like the other team principals, Cyril Abiteboul is confident that Renault can overcome the crisis.
In an interview with Motorsport.com Cyril said: “Motorsport has a unique value and contribution into it. That’s why we believe in it, just like we believe in a number of marketing activities, except that it’s sport, except that it’s been a core of technology.
“That’s racing, that’s emotion also, and Renault stands for emotion. So all of that means a lot. And that’s why we’ve been in this for a decades and we intend to do so for very long.”
However, Abiteboul's belief has not stopped the rumour about the Enstone team that wants to sell.
For many years, the Russian billionaire Dmitry Mazepin wanted an involvement in Formula 1, in fact he was willing to make offers on the Force India team, but unfortunately he lost against the stubbornness of the Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll.
Mazepin is still looking for a team to manage.
Gazzetta dello Sport certifies that Formula 1 is not Renault's priority given that the team has to make several staff cuts, but an attractive solution would be to resort to the help of Dmitry Mazepin.
For now Mazepin would play the role of investor even if his goal is to buy the team just like he should have done with Force India.
The Russian knows the situation the team is going through and he is considering some factors.
In addition, his son, Nikita Mazepin, is currently a Hitech Racing Formula 2 driver.
We have seen in the past how Lawrence Stroll, buying Force India, made his son one of the team's two official drivers by ousting the French driver Esteban Ocon.
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