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Renault to decide on 2014 customer teams in September

Renault currently supplies constructors' champions Red Bull © Getty Images

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Renault has set a September deadline in deciding how many customer teams the engine manufacturer will supply from 2014 onwards.

Renault currently supplies engines to four teams in Red Bull, Lotus, Williams and Caterham. But with teams having to switch to the new V6 turbo engines in two years time, there are concerns about the cost increases involved for the development of the new power plants.

"Today we have four customers. I think we will keep four next year as there is no way to change," Renault Sport F1's managing director Jean-Francois Caubet told Autosport.

"The problem we have is that we need to choose what will be our strategy for 2014. We have two kinds of options: to focus on two teams or to choose a bigger figure. In any case, the decision will be taken in September this year because we need to decide what we do."

With uncertainty surrounding the number of teams that independent engine suppliers such as PURE and Cosworth could strike deals with, Caubet believes an open market is the way forward and that lifting the current limitation of manufacturer to supply a maximum of three teams would help reduce costs.

"What we first want to understand is what will be the position of the World Council about how many teams. That will be discussed next week.

"We are quite clear with Jean [Todt] and we talked with Bernie that we need to have an open market because under old rules it was right [to limit the number of teams] when there was Ferrari, us, Cosworth, Mercedes, Honda and BMW and Toyota. We told Jean that now, though, we need to have an open market, with no limitations for 2014."

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