Competition vehicle Unregistered

Chassis no. RE 40-03

- Winner with Prost at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps

- Two pole positions at Monaco and Spa

- Driven by Alain Prost, one of the best drivers of all time

- One of the seven RE 40s built by Renault Sport for the 1983 season

- Sold by the manufacturer, known history, unquestionable authenticity

 

 

“It was one of the most important cars of the 1983 season, one of Alain Prost’s favourites, which he used for several Grands Prix”, to quote the book Renault F1, Les années turbo (Jean-Louis Moncet, Bernard Dudot, Jean Sage, published by Albin Michel in 1991), from which much of the information regarding Renault’s Formula 1 cars is taken. As one of the most important cars during the 1983 season, it was also, to say the least, one of the most significant in the story of Renault’s turbocharged cars in F1, as 1983 was the French company’s best season: Alain Prost finished second in the World Championship, missing the title by just two points.

 

Like the other single-seaters in this auction, RE 40-03 comes with its historical binder recording each time the car was taken out on track, with details of the times it posted, the equipment tested and settings used, as well as the drivers’ comments, all handwritten on loose sheets, showing how far things have moved on with the sophisticated computer systems used on today’s F1 cars ... This document, sold with the car, is of the utmost importance, as it provides an account of the car’s history, supplementing the information in the book mentioned above.

 

It informs us that RE 40-03 began its career with a string of four Grands Prix in just over a month, before being used mainly for test sessions. It made its first appearance at the San Marino Grand Prix on 29 April. Curiously, the page relating to this day in the binder has the comment “Jabouillisation”: perhaps a reference to a modification specific to Jean-Pierre Jabouille? Noting below this that the car “runs well and the brakes are OK”, Prost posted the fourth-fastest time and, on race day, finished second behind Tambay’s Ferrari. A week later, the car took part in two days of private testing at Le Castellet in preparation for the Monaco Grand Prix, which Prost made use of to fine-tune the car’s set-up.

The teams next met up in Monaco on 12 May for the test sessions for the most eagerly awaited Grand Prix on the calendar. “Engine good, gearbox good, but the car jumps too much, it oversteers”, Prost remarked. Which did not stop him from posting the fastest time and starting on pole. In the race itself, a bad choice of tyres forced him to change them on lap 7 and he finished third.

Next, it was off to Belgium and Spa-Francorchamps. Prost again proved very fast in qualifying and recorded the fastest time, ahead of the Ferrari driven by his former team-mate René Arnoux. This time, he succeeded in converting this pole position into a victory, after a faultless race at the wheel of the RE 40-03. It was a good day for Renault, as Cheever finished third.

For the next race, the teams had to cross the Atlantic: the United States Grand Prix East was held in Detroit, with testing starting on 3 June. A race to be forgotten for Prost, who managed only the thirteenth-fastest time in qualifying and crossed the finishing line in eighth place. He was smiling again a few days later in Montreal, for the Canadian Grand Prix, where he posted the second-fastest time in qualifying, despite suffering an engine failure during the first session. “The car is better balanced than yesterday”, Prost noted, although he used the spare car for the race, which he finished in fifth place.

He was back in the RE 40-03 at Silverstone on 21 June, ahead of the British Grand Prix. Prost and Cheever took turns behind the wheel for various set-up tests, with Cheever concluding: “[it] behaves consistently”. They returned to Silverstone on 14 July for the official tests, where the car was used as a test mule by Prost, who was assigned a new car, the RE 40-05, with which he secured a magnificent victory in front of the English public.

The RE 40-03 was subsequently used for a succession of private and official tests, at Zandvoort in Belgium (Cheever), at Hockenheim in Germany, at Zeltweg in Austria (Prost), at Zandvoort again (Prost) and then at Brands Hatch in England (mainly by Cheever, to some extent by Prost). Driven by Prost, it competed in one more Grand Prix on 11 September, at Monza in Italy, after serving as a test mule during testing. But the RE 40-03’s last race would end with it retiring, due to the failure of the turbocharger.

The car then took part in testing for the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch before going to Kyalami, in South Africa, for private tests, where it was used by Cheever to finalise the set-up for the last Grand Prix of the season. Cheever concluded: “Oversteers everywhere, much livelier.”

 

The car would be seen again in mid-December, at the Paul Ricard track, but with the line-up of drivers for the 1984 season: Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick, who replaced Cheever and Prost. The car was mainly used by Warwick for brake and tyre tests. Its final test session came on 4 January, with Warwick using it for gearbox tests. This marked the end of the car’s ‘official’ career, during which it had covered 7826km on track, one of the greatest distances of any of the Renault F1 cars from this period.

 

The following year, it was delivered by Renault Sport to Renault's Public Relations department, and ten years later, in May 1995, it was decided to put it on display in the ‘Pub Renault’ on the Champs-Elysées. In preparation for this, it was given a cosmetic restoration, commissioned by Jean Robert, then head of Renault’s ‘Heritage and Innovation’ department. He wrote on the estimate for the work: “Restoration essential given the quality requirements for cars displayed in the Pub Renault.” The work carried out at the Betesta workshop in Viry-Châtillon came to a total of 19,000FF and included a complete clean of the car, the restoration and repainting of the bodywork, the application by hand of the original livery and the reproduction of all the period stickers.

 

After a spell in the ‘Pub Renault’, it was lent out for various shows and exhibitions, including the Paris Motor Show in 1998 and Rétromobile in 1999. It also put in a few appearances at Renault dealerships and from 2000–2007, it was exhibited at the Musée National de l’Automobile, Collection Schlumpf, in Mulhouse, where it returned from 2014–2017 and again in 2021 and 2022. It is currently in its original livery, with Alain Prost’s name and racing number 15.

 

This RE 40-03, one of the seven RE 40s built by Renault Sport, of which six have remained with the manufacturer, is of the utmost historical importance, as it made a major contribution to Prost’s second place in the 1983 World Championship, his best result since he began racing. It competed in five Grands Prix, securing two pole positions and winning one race in the hands of one of the greatest drivers in the history of Formula 1, the four-time world champion Alain Prost. It is extremely rare for a F1 single-seater to boast such a record, established moreover during one of the most fascinating periods in the history of the sport, the magical turbo years.

RE 40-03: racing summary

 

27-29 April 1983

San Marino Grand Prix

Driver: Alain Prost

Qualifying: 4th

Race: 2nd

 

12-14 May 1983

Monaco Grand Prix

Driver: Alain Prost

Qualifying: 1st

Race: 3rd

 

19-22 May 1983

Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps

Driver: Alain Prost

Qualifying: 1st

Race: 1st

 

3-5 June 1983

United States Grand Prix East, Detroit

Driver: Alain Prost

Qualifying: 13th

Race: 8th

 

10-12 June 1983

Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal

Driver: Alain Prost

Qualifying: 2nd

11 September 1983

Italian Grand Prix, Monza

Driver: Alain Prost

Race: retired