Renault F1 Wary of ‘Perfectionist’ Fernando Alonso Ahead of 2021 Return

Renault have been underperforming during the season of 2020. Since the restart, the team have failed to make it to the podium even once. The closest they got was P4, that too under the bizarre events of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Fernando Alonso joins back with Renault in 2021. Daniel Ricciardo moves to McLaren, making way for the 2-time world champion. Everyone’s aware of Alonso’s thirst for commitment and perfection. Renault and Abiteboul are aware of the same. Therefore, he knows that there is no scope for error. Alonso recently visited the factory to give his future team an overview.

Alonso will not be eager to repeat the mistakes the French made this year. The entire grid knows that he comes to reclaim his third title. Thus he will aim for perfection. In that case, Renault will have to be very sharp with their design and their performance.

“We know from Fernando that he doesn’t make any mistakes; We have to improve on the execution on the track.” remarked the principal.

The Spaniard is verbose and does not tolerate anyone messing with his podiums. As Renault is definitely not the team it was a decade ago. Alonso will like to keep them on their toes.

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Renault chief confesses that they have assessed the car incorrectly

Abiteboul confirms that the team have benefitted from the new regulations levied. He further explains at what has been holding them back at the races since the restart.

“In the first eight races, it was like this: the more time we spent on a track in fast corners, the further back we were. In fast corners, the downforce was not stable. We broke this rule for the first time at Mugello. We were better than expected.” expressed Abiteboul.

From the expression, we can deduce that the team is still learning from the car. The manner in which they can implement the car best to extract the most from it. The French need to figure it out fast because the Spaniard arrives soon.

“There’s probably more to the car, we just have to get it out of it. For example, we haven’t been to Barcelona anywhere, and we have been fully competitive in Spa. Maybe it’s not the type of track if we leave this window just a little, we lose a disproportionate amount of time. That is why we ran through a number of different vehicle settings in Mugello, and some of them seem to confirm our theory.” 

Abiteboul and his company are P5 in the constructors’ championship. Between them and P3 stand the English-McLaren and Racing Point. However, a huge segment of the calendar is still to come. If they put in the desired effort, the tables can turn.

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