MAY 6, 2003

Jean-Jacques His leaves Renault

Jean-Jacques His, the man who masterminded the successful Renault V10 F1 engines in the early 1990s has left Renault Sport. He was working as the director of development at Renault F1 in Viry-Chatillon but was recently replaced as managing-director of the division.

His joined Renault in 1973 and by 1980 was in charge of new engine development. In 1984 he was appointed to head engine development at Renault Sport. After Renault pulled out of F1 he went briefly to Ferrari but returned to Renault in 1988 and led the design team of the V10 engine which became the dominant force in the sport in the early 1990s, which resulted in six F1 World Championship titles for Renault.

In 1997 Renault withdrew from Formula 1 again and joined Renault's powertrain engineering department as Director, Strategy and Advanced Engineering but the decision to return to F1 in 2000 resulted in him being appointed to head the Renault engine programme in 2000. But the wide-angle V10 engine which he pioneered was not a success and it seems that the team will now begin work on a more conventional unit to be used in 2004 and beyond.

It will be interesting to see whether His goes to work elsewhere in F1...