Renault will return to Formula One racing as a constructor next year after signing key contracts last Thursday to acquire the struggling Lotus team.
Announcing the move, a big boost for the sport after months of uncertainty, the French carmaker’s CEO Carlos Ghosn said he wanted the team to be competitive by 2019.
Formula 1 claims to be the world’s second-most watched sport after soccer. It has about 450 million television viewers a year and is a “technology showcase,” according to Renault. It said “enormous” growth potential in online viewing, social media, and video games has “yet to be fully exploited.”
Renault signed a letter of intent in September to take a controlling stake in UK-based Lotus, the team it previously owned but sold in late 2009 after a race-fixing scandal involving the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
Lotus, which employs about 480 staff at its factory near Oxford, England, has struggled financially and was facing legal action and possible helloistration over unpaid taxes. The company had been due back in the London High Court next Monday.
