Renault RE50

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Formula One racing car

title: "Renault RE50" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["renault-formula-one-cars", "1984-formula-one-season-cars"] description: "Formula One racing car" topic_path: "general/renault-formula-one-cars" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_RE50" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Formula One racing car ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox racing car"]

Field	Value
Image	[[File:Derek Warwick Renault RE50 1984 Dallas F1.jpg
Caption	Derek Warwick driving the RE50 at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix
Car_name	Renault RE50
Category	Formula One
Constructor	Renault
Designer	Bernard Dudot (Technical Director, Engine Designer)
Michel Têtu (Chief Designer (chassis))
Jean-Claude Migeot (Head of Aerodynamics)
Predecessor	RE40
Successor	RE60
Team	Equipe Renault Elf
Drivers	15. FRA Patrick Tambay

GBR Derek Warwick
FRA Philippe Streiff | | Technical ref | | | Chassis | Carbon fibre monocoque | | Engine name | Renault Gordini EF4, | | Configuration | 90° V6, | | Capacity | 1492 cc, | | Turbo/NA | turbo, | | Engine position | mid-engine, longitudinally mounted | | Wheelbase | 2680 mm | | Track | Front: 1802 mm Rear: 1670 mm | | Weight | 540 kg | | Gearbox name | Hewland, with Renault casing | | Type | manual | | Gears | 5-speed | | Front suspension | Forks / spring / delta | | Rear suspension | Forks / spring / delta | | Fuel | Elf | | Tyres | Michelin | | Debut | 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix | | Last_event | 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix | | Races | 16 | | Cons_champ | 0 | | Drivers_champ | 0 | | Wins | 0 | | Podiums | 5 | | Poles | 1 | | Fastest_laps | 2 | ::

The Renault RE50 was the Formula One racing car with which the factory Renault team competed in the 1984 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by Frenchman Patrick Tambay and Briton Derek Warwick, who joined the team from Ferrari and Toleman respectively; a third car was entered at the final race of the year in Portugal for test driver Philippe Streiff. The car's best results were three second-place and two third-place finishes, making it the first factory Renault not to win a Grand Prix in a season since the RS01 in .

The car was expected to be as competitive in the hands of two-time Grands Prix winner Tambay and the highly rated Warwick as the RE40 had been when driven by Alain Prost to four wins in . While the car was quick from the start, it had a few problems that the team and drivers could not overcome. The Renault EF4 turbo engine was said to be powerful, at 800 bhp, but usually fuel consumption was too high for either driver to challenge for more than 2nd or 3rd place at most races. This problem affected other Renault-engined cars such as the Lotus 95T, designed by former Renault designer Gérard Ducarouge, who had joined Lotus in 1984. In 1984 Formula One cars were restricted to a maximum of 220 litres of fuel per race, with the re-fueling of 1983 now banned; the French team never got on top of that problem despite a new and exciting electronic fuel monitoring device. The other main problem was that the car's tub was somewhat fragile, although made of carbon fibre stronger than the traditional aluminium. This fragility saw Warwick injuring his legs in crashes at both Dijon and Monaco, while Tambay suffered a broken left leg after crashing into Warwick's already crashed car at the first corner of the race in Monaco. Both drivers were injured as a result of their cars suspension arms punching through the carbon fibre monocoque.

Over the season, Warwick achieved five points finishes (two second places, two thirds and a fourth) and Tambay four (one second place, two fifths and a sixth). Warwick finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship with 23 points while Tambay finished eleventh with 11; the combined 34 points placed Renault fifth in the Constructors' Championship. Additionally, both drivers set one fastest race lap each, while Tambay took the team's only pole position of the season at their home race in France, leading over half the race before finishing second behind the McLaren-TAG of eventual World Champion Niki Lauda.

The RE50 was replaced for by the RE60.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) ::data[format=table]

Year	Entrant	Engine	Tyres	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Equipe Renault Elf	Renault Gordini EF4
V6 tc			BRA	RSA	BEL	SMR	FRA	MON	CAN	DET	DAL	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	EUR	POR	34	5th
Patrick Tambay	5	Ret	7	Ret	2	Ret	WD	Ret	Ret	8	5	Ret	6	Ret	Ret	7
Derek Warwick	Ret	3	2	4	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	2	3	Ret	Ret	Ret	11	Ret
Philippe Streiff																Ret
::

References

"STATS F1 • Renault RE50". Statsf1.com.
Smith, Roy. (15 November 2008). "Alpine & Renault: The Development of the Revolutionary Turbo F1 Car 1968-1979". Veloce Publishing Ltd.
"In the hot seat - Derek Warwick". Motor Sport.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::