Renault looking to supply customer engines

According to Autosport Magazine Renault is interested in supplying an independent team in 2007 with a customer engine. Renault has already been approached by a number of independent teams about a deal for next season. Renault F1 team boss Flavio Briatore told Autosport: "We are keen to supply a second team and we have ample capacity at Viry (France) to supply it. With homologated engines coming in, supplying a second team has to be the way to go. It would offset a lot of the cost. We would be willing to talk to anyone and the engines would be available for a very reasonable price."

There has been teams knocking on Renault's door to see if a customer engine would be an option for the team. Technical director Bob Bell admitted: "There have been plenty of people knocking on the door and asking for our engines. There seems to be a bit of flux amongst the teams that might need an engine and we are always willing to talk to people."

Should this happen it will put further pressure on Cosworth who is finding it increasingly hard to compete against the big manufacturers and their deep pockets for R&D. Until such time as Cosworth gets a manufacturer to badge their F1 engines, their future will remain cloudy in F1.