The strategic review is expected to be completed within a few months, and investors are hoping that will allow Renault to turn a page on months of uncertainty after the arrest last year of Renault-Nissan alliance boss Carlos Ghosn.

"We will avoid it if we can ... but we have to ask ourselves the question ... can we just keep up the same strategy? I don't think so. The market is changing, we have to adapt," Delbos said at a conference.

Delbos added that she was sure it was possible to make the carmaker's alliance with Nissan a lot more efficient that it was at the moment.

Renault is expected to refocus its operations, as it and Nissan, like many peers, are struggling with falling sales in a faltering global auto market.

Financial chief Delbos was propelled into her current job on a temporary basis after CEO Thierry Bollore's ousting in mid-October.

Delbos has applied to take the job on a permanent basis, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month.

When asked on Tuesday if she wanted to be permanent CEO, Delbos declined to comment.

(Reporting by Sarah White, Writing by Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Edmund Blair and Jan Harvey)