Jul.30 (GMM) Renault on Monday said a $50m investment at its formula one base in England is a "strong signal" about its commitment to the sport.



Strong rumours as recently as last year questioned the French carmaker's future on the grid, before the back to back champions struggled to match the pace of McLaren, Ferrari and BMW in 2007.



But in a statement, Renault team principal Flavio Briatore said the announcement of a state of the art Computational Fluid Dynamics facility at Enstone "sends a strong signal about our commitment to a competitive future in formula one".



Technical director Bob Bell added: "While other teams have invested in costly second wind tunnels, we believe that CFD is a technology of the future that will be integral to the design and development of more efficient vehicles."



CFD is widely used in the road car industry.