Renault confirm two-year Red Bull engine deal

Formula One champions Renault confirmed last weekend that they will supply one of the two Red Bull-owned teams with engines in 2007 and 2008.

Renault said in a statement announcing an agreement that Red Bull GmbH, the Austrian energy drink company that owns Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, would confirm later which of the two teams would use the engines.

Red Bull Racing use Ferrari engines and have a contract to continue with them next season.

However they want to pass that supply on to their Italian-based sister team, who have Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi as one of their drivers.

The Renault decision marks a return to the days when the French carmaker, who have concentrated on their own works effort in recent years, supplied more than one team. Renault engines powered Lotus, Ligier, Tyrrell, Williams and Benetton cars in the 1980s and 1990s, winning 80 grands prix between them.

q Nelson Piquet Jr will make his Renault test debut this week when he gets behind the wheel of the R26 at Silverstone. It will be Piquet's first Formula One outing since signing with the team as an official 2007 test driver. Piquet, runner-up in the 2006 GP2 series, will participate in all three days of the session, acclimatising himself to the car, to the team and to its working methods.