LONDON, Jan 14 — The Renault Formula One team slapped a silencer on the French national anthem yesterday after announcing they will race under a British licence this season.

With no active French F1 drivers, and no French grand prix since 2008, Renault were the last ones flying the flag for a country whose heritage and language permeates the sport from chassis to grand prix and on to parc ferme.

British-based sportscar company Lotus, owned by Malaysian carmaker Proton, have joined as title sponsor and significant stakeholder this season after Renault sold their shares in a team that retains their name.

"Lotus is an English manufacturer," team principal Eric Boullier told autosport.com after a launch of the team's new livery at the Autosport International show in Birmingham with their Russian driver Vitaly Petrov.

"I have not announced this before, but we will be running under a British licence now," added the Frenchman, whose team factory is at Enstone in central England.

"It means that if we win, we will play the British national anthem. And that is important for everybody inside the team. We are rebranding everything inside the company now."

Renault, world champion constructors in 2005 and 2006, last won a race in 2008 with Spain's Fernando Alonso, now with Ferrari.

The team's 2011 line-up partners Petrov with highly-rated Pole Robert Kubica.

The French company also provides engines for Austrian-owned champions Red Bull and the rival Malaysian-backed Team Lotus operation. — Reuters

LONDON Jan 14 — McLaren have played down suspicions that the comparatively late launch of their 2011 Formula One car could be because they had something special to hide.

The Mercedes-powered team, winners of five races last year with former champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, have set a Feb. 4 launch date in Berlin, after the first pre-season test in Valencia.

Other front-running teams plan to roll out their new cars from day one, with Ferrari unveiling theirs earlier than anyone at Maranello on Jan. 28.

"It's always been in our plans to launch it after the first test," McLaren engineering director Paddy Lowe told reporters in a teleconference yesterday.

"One of the reasons was that we wanted to make use of the first test to work with...a stable and known platform while we understood the new tyres. It also gave us a bit more time in the programme for the new car.

"So it's always been planned that way. It's just a plan we arrived at and one we considered optimal in race preparation overall."

Mercedes-powered Force India have also cited the new Pirelli tyres as a reason why they are bringing out their new car after the first test.

However Renault team principal Eric Boullier said at the Autosport International show in Birmingham that there other reasons.

"You never know the reasons behind it. It is obviously a strange decision, it could be a strategic decision as well," he told autosport.com.

"They have maybe tried to bring some very funny new systems, like they did last year, and they maybe need more time to manufacture them."

McLaren, overall runners-up in 2010 behind Red Bull, pioneered the use of the so-called 'F duct' last season — a device used by the driver to alter the flow of air over the rear wing and increase speed on the straights. — Reuters