F1 Feature - Alonso Rejoins Renault For 2008
18/12/2007
The inevitable has been confirmed. Fernando Alonso has rejoined Renault, the team with which he won both of his world titles in 2005 and '06.
There were alleged overtures from other teams, notably Toyota and Red Bull, but Fernando was widely expected to sign with Renault after the team agreed to his terms. Rookie Nelson Piquet, who previously acted as the team's test driver, steps up to sit alongside him in the pit garage.
After a troubled 2007, which saw Renault score only one podium at the Japanese Grand Prix, they are looking to bounce back in '08 with Alonso. The Spaniard is a fabulous race driver and a respected test driver, even claiming that he found McLaren 0.6s per lap last winter alone. Can he do the same at Renault?
"The first thing to do," he says, "is to put the R28 on-track in January and then start working hard in order to get to the first grand prix of the season with the best car possible. I had to rise to the same challenge last winter with McLaren and I am confident that this can happen again."
Renault's resources have been 100 percent focused on their 2008 car since September, when team boss Flavio Briatore announced that they had stopped the development of the '07 car, the R27. Since then, the engineers at Enstone have been working round the clock to improve the team's competitiveness ahead of '08, and the initial signs are good.
"The numbers are an improvement," says Renault's director of engineering, Pat Symonds. "But that will be the same up and down the pitlane, and it's a question of how much we've improved relative to the opposition."
Bridgestone have no doubt played a role in Renault's potential resurgence by keeping next season's grooved tyre compounds relatively unchanged from 2007. With a year's experience on the tyres, the French team can build next year's R28 around the rubber, unlike in 2007, when they had to swap from a rival tyre manufacturer at the start of the year.
"The teams that have had problems adjusting to the Bridgestone tyres," says Alonso, "will hopefully have solved their problems and will be back at the top. Maybe Renault can be part of the top teams again this season."
While Alonso's signature gives Renault many reasons to be excited about 2008, his return to the team left `07 race drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella without a seat. Kovalainen has since been confirmed at McLaren, effectively trading seats with Alonso while Fisichella has already tested for Force India at Jerez.