The first race the team, under the name Équipe Renault Elf, entered was the 1977 French Grand Prix, the ninth round of the season, but the car was not yet ready.

Things improved at Watkins Glen for the United States Grand Prix as Jabouille qualified 14th, but the good pace from Zandvoort seemed to be gone as he once again ran outside the top 10 before retiring with yet another reliability problem, this time the alternator, on lap 31.

In 1983, Renault and Prost came very close to winning the drivers' title but were edged out by Nelson Piquet (Brabham-BMW) at the last race of the season in South Africa.

In 1985, major financial problems emerged at Renault and the company could no longer justify the large expenses needed to maintain the racing team's competitiveness.

CEO Georges Besse pared down the company's involvement in F1 from full-fledged racing team to engine supplier for the 1986 season before taking it entirely out of F1 at the end of that year.

[12] When reporting the purchase the International Herald Tribune commented that "the team will not race under the Renault name until it is ready to win and reap the marketing benefits".

Hoping to secure second place in the Constructors' Championship, Renault replaced Trulli with 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve for the final three races.

This achievement was followed by a win in China to secure the Constructors' World Championship for Renault after McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya's car was badly damaged by a drain cover coming loose on the track.

Renault's performance at the German Grand Prix was one of their worst of the season; however, the team blamed blistering of their Michelin tyres rather than the loss of the mass damper system.

The team similarly started in 2008 as the year before; Fernando Alonso managed to garner fourth at the opening Australian Grand Prix as a result of a mistake from a previous Renault employee Heikki Kovalainen.

The team brought new parts to the Spanish Grand Prix, including a new engine-cover, dubbed the "Shark-fin", similar to the one introduced by Red Bull on their RB4.

Renault underlined their return to the front at the subsequent Japanese Grand Prix, in which Alonso steered clear of Lewis Hamilton's first-corner mistake to record another win.

By mid-season, it appeared as though Renault were making progress, with Alonso setting the fastest lap in Germany and securing pole position in Hungary, albeit on a light fuel load.

However, Alonso was forced to retire early in Hungary due to a fuel pump failure, after a front wheel came loose as it was incorrectly fitted at his first pit stop.

At Belgium Alonso again looked like scoring a podium for the team but had to retire with another problem with one of his wheels which was damaged as a result of a first-lap clash with Adrian Sutil.

However, in Belgium, Petrov made a mistake that ended with a crash in the first session of qualifying when he explored the kerbs at Liege corner, claiming he was testing to see how wet they were and if they were usable on his flying lap.

In Singapore, Petrov was running seventh before being pushed off by Nico Hülkenberg, whilst Kubica was forced to make an unscheduled stop late in the race with a puncture, before going on to recover almost every place he had lost.

Rumours had tipped 2007 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen to replace Petrov for 2011, but the Finn angrily rejected claims he would join the team, stating that he was upset Renault was using his name for their image and that their actions meant he would not race for them.

[45] Along with the launch of their new car, Lotus Renault GP announced that they had hired Jean Alesi as an ambassador for the team and test driver for the T125 single-seater project.

Petrov finished fifth in the rain-affected Canadian Grand Prix, with Heidfeld retiring after damaging his car's front wing in a collision with Kamui Kobayashi.

Additionally, Bob Bell (formerly of Mercedes, Marussia and the previous incarnation of Renault) was confirmed as the team's chief technical officer and Frédéric Vasseur (of ART Grand Prix) as the new racing director.

However it also has other sponsorships with partners including Bell & Ross, Devialet, EMC, Genii Capital, Infiniti, Total, CD-adapco, Microsoft, Pirelli, OZ Racing and Jack & Jones.

[70] Plagued by reliability issues at the start of the season, and aerodynamic poor performance, the team finished 5th in the Constructors' Championship, failing to escape the midfield.

Renault Sport stopped its engine program at the end of the year, having scored 19 pole positions and 5 Grand Prix victories with customer teams.

1994 saw Williams driver Ayrton Senna killed at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, which left the Brazilian's inexperienced teammate Damon Hill as team leader.

[92][93] Renault Sport F1 continued to supply engines to their former works team and Red Bull, and expanded their customers to Lotus Racing at the end of 2010.

[98] In 2012, the Red Bull team[99] and Sebastian Vettel[100] were able to achieve both championships for a third time, despite the fact the RB8 car did not enjoy the dominance of the previous season and suffered some reliability problems related to the RS27's alternator.

[102] Red Bull came back to a dominant pace in the 2013 season and both the team and Sebastian Vettel secured their fourth consecutive title at the 2013 Indian Grand Prix.

[113] In the early part of the season, the Energy F1-2014 was the subject of various criticisms for its poor reliability and lack of top speed,[114][115][116] including one by Red Bull's boss Christian Horner which described the performance as "unacceptable" after an unsuccessful team's home race in Austria.

[125] However, despite the rebranding of the Enstone team and a win for Alpine driver Esteban Ocon at 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix,[126] the Renault power unit still continued to struggle overall relative to the competition from Honda, Ferrari and Mercedes.