DECEMBER 29, 2002

Hello, hello, hello. What's going on here then?

It is worth reporting that Mecachrome in France is advertising for Formula 1 engine-builders. The company, which is based in Aubigny-sur-Nere, not far from Magny-Cours, is a precision engineering business which works in aerospace and the automobile industry but since 1974 has been doing sub-contract work for Renault Sport. The involvement in F1 began back in 1983 when Renault began to prepare customer engines and this link was revived in 1992 when the company expanded its V10 engine supply to Ligier. From 1995 onwards Mecachrome-built engines and those built at Viry-Chatillon were provided on a random basis to Williams and Benetton. When Renault announced that it was to withdraw from F1 at the end of 1997 the F1 engines were sold to Mecachrome and in 1998 Williams and Benetton used Mecachrome-badged V10s before this supply was taken over by a company called Super Performance Competition Engineering and they became Supertec V10s and were used in F1 in 1999 and 2000 by Williams, Benetton, British American Racing and Arrows.

Since the end of 2000 however the Mecachrome name has dropped from view in F1 but this has not stopped the company doing sub-contract work for Renault, BMW and Toyota. It seems that the company is continuing that role, which is odd given that there are new rules in 2004 which will reduce the number of engines needed by F1 teams. However it seems that there is enough to do for Mecachrome to be hiring...