Mecachrome

Since 1979 Mecachrome has been involved with Renault Sport, the motorsport division of Renault (though today its F1 operations are conducted through Renault Sport F1, a separate group company).

From 1983 Renault began to supply other teams with engines, Mecachrome was given the responsibility of preparing the engines for these customer teams (e.g. Lotus-Renault in 1983 and Ligier-Renault in 1984). In 1985 Renault withdrew from Formula One as a constructor and withdrew from engine supply for the 1987 season. In 1989 Renault returned to F1 as engine supplier to WilliamsF1 (and Ligier from 1992), with Mecachrome again responsible for preparing the engines for the team.

Renault engines powered Williams and Benetton to six consecutive Constructors' World Championships between 1992 and 1997, and five Drivers' titles with Nigel Mansell (1992), Alain Prost (1993), Michael Schumacher (1995), Damon Hill (1996) and Jacques Villeneuve (1997).

In 1995 Benetton acquired Ligier's stock of Renault V10 engines. In 1996 Renault was privatised and the same year announced its withdrawal from Formula One after the 1997 season. In order to avoid protest by shareholders regarding costs of engine development, Mecachrome agreed to pay Renault for the development work in order to continue the relationship. The 1998 engines supplied to Williams carried the Mecachrome name, while Benetton's engines were badged as Playlife.

In 1998 Flavio Briatore's company, Super Performance Competition Engineering, signed a distribution agreement with Mecachrome to begin in the 1999 season. The engines were purchased and rebadged as Supertec. Supertecs powered Williams in 1999, BAR in 1999 and Arrows in 2000. Supertec also continued to power Benetton under the Playlife brand.

In 2001 Renault returned to Formula One by purchasing the Benetton team and the Renault designed engines again carried the Renault name. The relationship remains unchanged, with Renault responsible for design and Mecachrome assembly; this relationship helped Renault win a constructors' and driver's F1 championship "double-double" in 2005-2006 with Fernando Alonso.

Mecachrome-assembled Renault engines powered the Red Bull Racing Formula One team to the Constructors' Championship and Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel to the World Drivers' Championship in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

In 2005, the GP2 Series (now FIA Formula 2 Championship) was launched as the official feeder category to Formula One. As the brainchild of Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, the new series was to be powered by Renault engines (badging only), and Mecachrome was tasked with their production. The FIA Formula 2 Championship power units were manufactured at the same base as the Renault F1 units in Aubigny, France with direction from Mader in Switzerland.

Despite teething troubles which saw the power units and gearboxes reach what many observers claimed to be an unacceptably high level of unreliability, Mecachrome has been an integral and vital part of the success of the GP2 Series, providing the power which has displayed the emerging talents of F1 drivers Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock.

The company will continue to supply engines and gearboxes for the GP2 Series in its second generation (2008-2010) whilst also supplying the new-for-2008 GP2 Asia Series with slightly detuned versions of the power unit which has been at the core of the GP2 Series since 2005.

Since 2011 season, Renault Sport no longer badge their Mecachrome engines and forcing them to build their fully own engines.

The Mecachrome V8 GP2/F2 engines were jointly developed by Mecachrome and TEOS Engineering for design, tune-up, R&D, engine maintenance, arrangement and trackside support. The FIA Formula 2 Championship V8 engine formula specification was in use from 2005 and was retired following the 2017 season.

New engine regulations with 620 hp 3,400 cc V6 single-turbocharged direct-injected engines known as the Mecachrome V634 Turbo[1], which is a development of the naturally aspirated Mecachrome V634 used in the GP3 Series, were introduced for 2018 along with a new Dallara F2 2018 chassis while TEOS Engineering renewed its subcontract relationship with Mecachrome on track in FIA Formula 2 Championship for 2018 beyond.[2] Dutch turbocharger company Van Der Lee Turbo Systems supplies the turbochargers for all FIA Formula 2 Championship engines.[3][4]

In 2015 alongside the Dallara GP3/16 car launch, Mecachrome was selected as the official engine supplier of GP3 Series for 2016-2018 seasons.[5] The Mecachrome V634 GP3/F3 engines are also jointly developed by Mecachrome and TEOS Engineering for design, tune-up, R&D, engine maintenance, arrangement, shared-production and trackside support. Despite the new Dallara F3 2019 car unveil, the current Mecachrome V634 which will be used by all FIA Formula 3 competitors will extend its service until at least 2021 season.

In late 2008, the company sought legal protection from creditors in Canada after they defaulted on their publicly held bond. The company subsequently announced $30M worth of refinancing to cover operating costs during restructuring of the company.[6][7]

In 2017, Mecachrome partnered with Ginetta as an engine supplier for the G60-LT-P1 LMP1 Prototype, supplying the V634P1, a variant of the V634 F2 engine, which would also be turbocharged by Van Der Lee Turbo Systems. The Ginetta G60-LT-P1-AER, run by CEFC TRSM, was to compete in the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans and the full 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship.[8] However, after withdrawing from the opening WEC round at Spa-Francorchamps and achieving a fifth in class result at Le Mans, which was in reality a 41st position result in the overall standings, Ginetta dropped the Mecachrome V634P1 in favour of the AER P60B engines. This was done due to a performance deficit from the Turbo V6 engine, and the lack of response to calls for a development programme from Mecachrome Motorsport, with the stated aim being to unlock the true performance of the chassis.[9] Mecachrome Motorsport responded to Ginetta's announcement soon afterwards, also revealing that it intended to continue its LMP1 engine programme, although it has yet to find any customers to run the engine in any chassis since.[10] Ginetta technical director Ewan Baldry later responded to Mecachrome's claims, acknowledging that while the engine utilised at Le Mans was a first specification engine, the engine was underpowered, and did not meet the contractually agreed performance targets.

"“Of course, TRSM and Ginetta were understanding of the fact that there would be a development phase with the engine. Performance specifications were provided by Mecachrome as part of the contract that was made between Ginetta and Mecachrome. Part of the issue here is that the engines as supplied did not meet even the conservative parameters that were agreed.""

— Ewan Baldry, Ginetta Technical Director, Dailysportscar Interview[11]

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Points	WCC
1998	Winfield Williams	Williams FW20	Mecachrome GC37-01 3.0 V10	G		AUS	BRA	ARG	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	AUT	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	LUX	JPN	38	3rd
					Jacques Villeneuve	5	7	Ret	4	6	5	10	4	7	6	3	3	Ret	Ret	8	6
					Heinz-Harald Frentzen	3	5	9	5	8	Ret	Ret	15	Ret	Ret	9	5	4	7	5	5
	Mild Seven Benetton	Benetton B198	Playlife (Mecachrome) GC37-01 3.0 V10	B	Giancarlo Fisichella	Ret	6	7	Ret	Ret	2	2	9	5	Ret	7	8	Ret	8	6	8	33	5th
					Alexander Wurz	7	4	4	Ret	4	Ret	4	5	4	9	11	16	Ret	Ret	7	9

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