Investor confirms Renault interest

The current situation in F1, this period of change, creates opportunities for new teams and new investors.

Luxembourg-based investor Gerard Lopez has confirmed he is a candidate to take over the Renault Formula One team, whose future will be decided in Paris on Thursday.

- There are cycles - Lopez said here Wednesday at the Motor Sport Business Forum, a conference for stakeholders and sponsors of F1 and motorsport.

- The current situation in F1, this period of change, creates opportunities for new teams and new investors.

- If we take over Renault F1, it will be in its entirety, as a team manufacturer - added Lopez, the founder of Mangrove Capital Partners and the president of Genii Capital, which have both invested in new internet technologies in recent years.

Despite his stated interest in Renault, Lopez has also admitted to interest in "another F1 team".

Renault F1's new owners are expected to be named following a board meeting of the French company in Paris on Thursday.

The only other known candidate to take over the brand is British motorsport entrepreneur David Richards, owner of the Prodrive motorsport team and chairman of British luxury car-maker Aston Martin.

Unlike Lopez, Richards has previous F1 experience, having previously run the Benetton and British American Racing teams.

There has been speculation over Renault's future in F1 ever since the FIA, motorsport's governing body, issued a lifetime ban in September to their former team principal Flavio Briatore for ordering Nelson Piquet Junior to deliberately crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Pat Symonds, Renault's former chief engineer, was banned for five years.

Both men are currently appealing against their respective punishments.

Even without the fall-out from that scandal, worldwide economic problems have also called into question Renault's continued involvement in the sport during a 12-month period where other volume car manufacturers such as Honda, BMW and Toyota have all pulled out of Formula One.