Bonne Chance, Renault.
It somehow feels right that Renault should be reinventing itself for the umpteenth time in some style nearly 40 years after arriving on the F1 scene. The first appearance was halfway through the 1977 season, which says a lot about how things were done then. There was no grand speech about winning a race; not even, as far as I can recall, a single sound bite attempting to put a positive spin on what most people considered to be a hopeless case.
Renault was travelling down a development avenue that had been open for 11 years but the fact that no other engine manufacturer has so much as crossed the threshold said everything about this brave, not to say daft, decision.
Renault had chosen to try running a turbocharged 1.5-litre engine at a time when everyone else was sticking to 3-litre normally aspirated, thank you very much. The turbocharging option had been written into the new engine regulations for 1966 to act as a sop for anyone wanting to continue using a 1.5-litre unit, the maximum permitted in the previous formula.
Everyone scoffed. Glorious sounding multi-cylinder engines from the likes of Ferrari, Maserati, Honda, Weslake and BRM exemplified the new era, grandly titled 'The Return to Power'. Even when crafty Jack Brabham came along and cleaned up with a simple lump based on an elderly Oldsmobile V8, there was never a thought of using an engine half that size. And when Ford-Cosworth introduced the superb DFV V8 in 1967, the 3-litre deal was well and truly done.
Renault fronting up at Silverstone with a 1.5 turbo 10 years later was a bit like eschewing slicks for grooved tyres simply because you could. There was a fair bit of fun poked at the droning V6 with a throttle lag so bad that Jean-Pierre Jabouille's call for power coming out of Chapel was not answered until he was half way to Stowe. And when the thing expired in the predictable overheated cloud of smoke and steam, sages tapped the sides of their noses and returned to enjoying the pitched battle between James Hunt's McLaren-Ford V8 and John Watson's mellifluous Brabham-Alfa Romeo flat-12.
Renault would have the last laugh two short years later when Jabouille won in France. The turbo/normally aspirated formula dreamed up for 1966 was never considered to be equivalent -- but not like this! Turbos weren't supposed to be viable, never mind win a race. The turbo floodgate -- or wastegate to be precise -- was now wide open thanks to Renault's nerve and foresight.
There was another aspect that was new and refreshing in every sense. The Renault personnel, led by the charming and feisty Marie-Claude Beaumont, were open and friendly. In those relaxed days, the same more or less applied to very F1 team (except, perhaps, the slightly lofty Scuderia Ferrari). But none of them was willing to explain exactly where they had gone wrong, to the extent of bringing the broken engine part for examination at the next race.
You could argue that Renault had absolutely nothing to lose but the candid approach was accompanied by a willingness to have a good time. The Silverstone debut coincided with Bastille Day; the perfect excuse to run a barbecue in the paddock even though it provoked champagne-fuelled comments from one or two hacks that the chargrill looked like their engine had done a few hours earlier.
Rather than be put off, Renault really went to town. By a happy coincidence, one of their most memorable evenings was in an imposing vineyard chateau on the night before Dijon-Prenois in 1979. The slight downside was that several tired and emotional writers could hardly bear the crashing of their portable typewriters the following afternoon while beating out stories of their host's landmark victory at home.
This is being written without prior knowledge of today's launch in Paris. But the signs are that old values have been remembered, which is no bad thing. Forget, for a moment, the well-chronicled troubles as an engine supplier; this is a totally different scenario. Appropriately, Renault is assuming control of a bunch of racers with respected roots.
People may have been making fun recently of the Régie's F1 efforts but wouldn't it be nice if, as in 1977, they came along in two years' time and blew Red Bull into the whingeing weeds? And if we could have a nice drop of Beaujolais on the night before, so much the better.
Welcome back. Et Bonne Chance.