Renault not spending more as works team - Stoll

Mar.15 (GMM) Renault is apparently not having to spend much more on its formula one programme despite returning to full works status in 2016.

As well as supplying Red Bull once again this year, the French carmaker acquired the struggling Lotus team ahead of the new season.

Jerome Stoll, the Renault Sport chief who was instrumental in the negotiations to buy Lotus and ramp up Renault's official F1 income, admitted that the company's solid financial results in 2015 were helpful.

"Having good accounts helps," he told a French-language interview with AFP news agency, "but the target set by our president was clear that it (being a works team) should not cost more than being only a supplier.

"That's what happens now," Stoll insisted.

"The economic equation is comparable because as a team we have access to the FOM rights (income), but the image from being a team is much better -- it is nothing like being only a supplier," he added.

Stoll, however, said everyone at Renault and Enstone is aware that actual results on the track will not be instant.

"I do not want to disappoint or over-promise," he said, "as 2016 will be a rebuilding year.

"We want to give ourselves time to build up something more robust. We are not returning to F1 only for the passion of competition, but as part of a business plan around the technology," explained Stoll.