page_title: Renault in Formula One
section_title: 2004 season
hierarchical_section_title: Renault in Formula One / Constructor / Renault F1 Team (2002–2010) / 2004 season
caption_attribution_description: Fernando Alonso driving for Renault F1 at the 2004 United States Grand Prix.
context_page_description: The French automotive manufacturer Renault has been associated with Formula One as both constructor and engine supplier for various periods since 1977. In 1977, the company entered Formula One as a constructor, introducing the turbo engine to Formula One in its first car, the Renault RS01. In 1983, Renault began supplying engines to other teams. Although the Renault team won races and competed for world titles, it withdrew at the end of 1985. Renault continued supplying engines to other teams until 1986, then again from 1989 to 1997 and at various other times since then until the present.
  Renault returned to Formula One in 2000, when it acquired the Enstone-based Benetton Formula team. In 2002, Renault re-branded the team as Renault F1 Team and started to use Renault as their constructor name, winning both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in 2005 and 2006.
  For the 2011 season, the team competed under the name Lotus Renault GP but retained the Renault constructor name. In 2012, the team changed their constructor name to Lotus and operated as Lotus F1 Team until the end of 2015, when they returned to the control of Renault as a works manufacturer.
context_section_description: In 2004, the team were contenders for second place in the Constructors' Championship. Trulli won the Monaco Grand Prix, but his relationship with Renault (particularly with team principal and Trulli's ex-manager Flavio Briatore) deteriorated after he was consistently off the pace in the latter half of the year, and made claims of favouritism in the team towards Alonso (though the two teammates themselves remained friendly).
  Commentators regularly point to the French Grand Prix as the final straw for Briatore, where Trulli was overtaken by Rubens Barrichello in the final stages of the last lap, costing Renault a double podium finish at their home Grand Prix. He subsequently announced he was joining Toyota for the following year and in fact left Renault early, driving the Toyota in the last two races of the 2004 season. Hoping to secure second place in the Constructors' Championship, Renault replaced Trulli with 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve for the final three races. However, Villeneuve – away from F1 racing for almost an entire season and struggling to acclimatise quickly to racing at the premier level – did not impress, and the team finished third behind Villeneuve's former team BAR.
caption: Fernando Alonso driving for Renault at the 2004 United States Grand Prix.
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