Renault is promising to pour a Mercedes-like annual budget into its Formula One engine program after purchasing the Lotus F1 team.

That is the claim of German media outlet Auto Motor und Sport, following the announcement late last week that the French carmaker has decided to definitely buy Lotus and reportedly return to full works status with a Mercedes-like budget in the range of $250 million per year.

However, the carmaker is apparently playing it smart about the acquisition. It has retained team principal Gerard Lopez as a shareholder, and secured $70-80 million from Bernie Ecclestone in recognition of Renault's "historic" status -- meaning Renault is not actually forking out a dollar of its own to buy Lotus.

Not only that, it will get approximately $32.5 million from Red Bull next year for the Tag Heuer-branded engine deal, while taking back the former four-time world champions' title sponsor Infiniti, a luxury division of Nissan.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said: "This new agreement (with Renault) does not cover any marketing activity for the Renault-Nissan alliance. We wish Infiniti all the best with their plans for the future."

Moreover, Renault is expected to also run Total-branding in 2016, while pocketing the millions brought to the team by the heavily PDVSA-backed Pastor Maldonado.

The real advancements are not expected right away, and 2016 will be a transitional year, with Lopez saying next year's car will be effectively "a Lotus-Mercedes with a Renault engine."

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