The chassis was designed by Nick Chester, Martin Tolliday, Simon Virrill, Matthew Harman and Dirk de Beer with Marcin Budkowski overseeing the design and production of the car as executive technical director and Rémi Taffin leading the powertrain design. The car was planned to make its competitive debut at the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, but this was delayed when the next nine events in were cancelled or postponed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The R.S.20 made its debut at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix. It was driven by Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon in 2020. Ricciardo scored Renault's first podium since it returned to Formula One at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix, while Ocon scored his first career podium at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.