More Renault Staff Join Red Bull Racing

By
April 5 2006

Having incurred the wrath of Flavio Briatore in the close season for "poaching" a number of top staff away from the Renault F1 Team, Red Bull Racing have now added insult to injury by luring the World Champions Head of Manufacturing, Keith Saunt, away from Enstone.

A short press statement issued this morning announced:

"Red Bull Racing is pleased to announce that Keith Saunt will be joining the team as Operations Director. With more than 15 years experience in Formula One, Keith will join the team from Renault later this year."

At Renault, Keith, as Head of Manufacturing, had the task of ensuring every part throughout the year, from the first monocoque to final reliability update, was sourced and manufactured on time.

After working in Local Government, Keith left to set up his own business in 1987 but, two weeks later, was convinced to accept a purchasing role with Lotus. He then became Chief Buyer before moving to Benetton in 1988, where he was responsible for setting up the purchasing department: until then, this hadn't existed in any complete form. During his time with Benetton he moved onto the production side, and after a two-year spell outside the industry, joined Renault as Head of Manufacturing in 2001.

Keith will find some familiar faces from his Renault days at Red Bull. During the off-season ex-Renault Chief Mechanic Jonathan Wheatley became Race Team Manager of Red Bull Racing, and  designer Rob Marshall was also lured to RBR. He will also recognise Technical Director Mark Smith who joined Red Bull in January 2005 having previously been at Renault.