Renault Not Ruling out Alonso Deal

The Renault F1 team has not blatantly denied rumours suggesting that Fernando Alonso could drive for the team in 2019.

The French team currently fields Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg and Spain’s Carlos Sainz for 2018. However, the latter is merely ‘on loan’ from Red Bull for a year and his future is yet to be decided.

“We are not in a hurry and we also have to see what are the side effects of the [Red Bull] decision on the engine,” said team boss Cyril Abiteboul.

“But in general the drivers we have work well and we would like to keep them. But I am also calm in the sense that, if we have a good car and progress as a team, we will have a selection of drivers who want to be with us.”

One of the options is a certain Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard has won both his titles with Renault over a decade ago.

The 36-year-old] currently drives for McLaren with the Renault engine strapped to it. However, their competitiveness has not improved since the decision to end the Honda partnership.

Abiteboul said: “I don’t want to encourage that rumour.

“I think Fernando first has to decide what he wants to do for himself, which is whether to continue driving in F1 or not.

“We have a lot of respect for Fernando, but we are more interested in drivers who want to be with us in the long term.

“We could still reach an agreement with Alonso, but doing it for a year would not make sense.”

The veteran driver is currently eighth in the driver rankings after yesterday’s British Grand Prix.

Many rumours have also placed him away from F1, namely in IndyCAR. This is likely because of his desire to win the ‘triple crown of motorsport’.