Renault RE40

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The Renault RE40 was designed by Michel Tetu as Renault's car for the 1983 F1 world championship. Ground effect had been banned at the end of 1982, and so the car was built around a flat bottomed arrangement. It featured enlarged wings to try and claw back as much of the lost downforce as possible. René Arnoux had left the team to be replaced by Eddie Cheever, whilst Alain Prost was now undisputed no.1 driver. The RE40 was designed around his driving style, and he racked up many miles of testing to avoid the unreliability of the previous two seasons. The RE40 was the first Renault chassis to be built entirely of carbon fibre.

Prost scored consistently and took four wins during the season. He led the drivers' championship for most of the season ahead of Arnoux of Ferrari and Nelson Piquet in the Brabham BT52 but at the final round in South Africa his turbo failed and Piquet won the title. The RE40 was best suited to fast tracks with long corners such as Spa and the Österreichring, but Prost made the best of his car and team and won more races than any other driver during the year. Cheever proved to be a good team mate; unlike with Arnoux, Prost and Cheever got on well and the atmosphere within the team was generally good. Cheever scored several podiums and was in line for victory on more than one occasion, but for more reliability he might have broken his duck.

Prost was tired of Renault's inability to put together a consistent challenge for either championship and left for McLaren at the end of the year. The RE40 took four wins and three poles during the season. It was used in the first few races of 1984 by Derek Warwick and Patrick Tambay until the RE50 was ready. Both drivers scored good points, enough to confirm that had the car been more reliable, Prost would have been champion in 1983.