Lopez confirms Renault interest

Test: Ho-Pin Tung

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Entrepreneur Gerard Lopez confirmed on Wednesday that he is in the running to buy Renault's Formula One team.

Lopez is co-founder and managing partner of the Luxembourg-based Mangrove Capital Partners which is one of Europe's leading venture capital firms.

He is also involved in driver management via the Gravity sports organisation which looks after several promising young racers including China's Ho-Pin Tung, who tested for Renault last week.

Speaking at the Motor Sport Business Forum in Monaco, Lopez said that with teams having agreed to cut costs over coming seasons, the terms of entry were becoming more favourable to newcomers.

"We are very opportunistic," he said. "We have been in F1 for quite a while as friends to lots of people there, we have done some business in the environment, and never thought about getting more heavily involved than that.

"The situation is such now that it presents an opportunity for new teams or new investors in a time, not of uncertainty, but of change. We are in the middle of times of change.

"We have looked at one other opportunity, and that is about it.

"We believe there is a chance now to enter the sport and build on a platform that will reinvent itself, and we can be part of that reinvention."

Lopez faces competition from Prodrive, whose founder David Richards is a former team principal for both Renault F1's predecessor Benetton and the BAR team.

It is also understood that two other figures are in negotiations with the French manufacturer.