Get ready for the return of the Renault F1 team

Renault has designs on returning to Formula One as a works team, not simply to supply engines. This much we know. And today, the French marque has come a step closer to the F1 grid in 2016 with news they've officially announced that they have signed a letter of intent to take over Lotus F1.

Yep, following a weekend of off-track drama – a soap-opera distraction from Hamilton’s serene drive to victory that practically nobody saw – Renault and Gravity Motorsports S.a.r.l have announced plans to take a controlling stake in the Enstone team and return to the grid in 2016.

“The signature of this Letter of Intent marks Renault’s first step towards the project of a Renault Formula One team from the 2016 racing season,” the announcement reads, “extending 38 years of commitment of the brand to the world’s premier motorsport championship series.”

Though Renault’s current woes with Red Bull as an engine supplier are well-documented – a very public spat with Red Bull concluding with Renault ending its arrangement to supply customer engines – the team has a long and glittering history in Formula One which kicked off way back in 1977.

The highest point of recent years came in 2005 and 2006 when – with Fernando Alonso – Renault won both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.

We’re told both Renault and Gravity will work together in the coming weeks to “turn this initial undertaking into a definitive transaction” that will likely spell the end for the Lotus name, but return the French marque to the grid. Watch this space...

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