It takes much more than just a great car company to be sucessful in Formula 1. Chassis and Engine design need to be top notch. Because you need very specialized knowledge to do either, many renowned manufacturers farm the engine development and build out to specialists. Ilmore Engineering used to be one of these. As far as Renault is concerned, think of the link Renault-Nissan-Infinty. Then there was McLaren-Mercedes, Sauber-Mercedes. BMW did only the engines, I don't even remember what chassis they had. Porsche had a Formula 1 car in the 60s once. wasn't very sucessful either. And on top of this, there is always Bernie Ecclestone telling you what you can and what you cannot do.
I understand & agree. It just seems to me that those three BMW,Honda , Toyota should be able to hire the best of the best in engineering,[chassis,suspension,hydraulics etc] to make it happen ?
BMW did well in the early 80's in the regard to engines. Their Turbo-4, 1.5 liter put out something like 1300HP!