Renault's team principal Cyril Abiteboul has revealed that Fernando Alonso has a chance at testing 2020 Renault F1 car at the post-season Abu Dhabi young driver test. He revealed this in an interview with motorsport.com clarifying that it was subject to approval from the FIA.
"Yeah, absolutely. We need to see if it can happen based on the testing criteria. So we are talking with the FIA about that," he said to motorsport.com. Abiteboul revealed Alonso is hungry and is eager to get back into a Formula One car.
The Renault boss who is also in charge of the Alpine brand revealed that Alonso could see the improvement in the pace of the F1 stable with its cars stopping just short of reaching the podium in the last few races. "At the start, it was much more about the future," he said.
Daniel Ricciardo has come close to scoring a podium with the Renault this year
Photo Credit: AFP
"It was let's go very hard in 2022 and forget about 2021 and write off in 2021."But as he sees that we are starting to have interesting battles on track, Fernando, he wants to feed the blood: in a positive way. He wants to see that there is something that he can grasp," he added.
Abiteboul was hopeful that the FIA would ease restrictions which will allow Alonso to test the 2020 car at the end of the season considering so many drivers were changing teams. Alonso takes the place of Daniel Ricciardo who moves to Alonso's former team McLaren which is set to get Mercedes engines. Carlos Saniz Jr is moving to Ferrari from McLaren while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel is moving to Aston Martin.
Renault is set to be rebranded to Alpine-Renault next year
The current regulations mean that Alonso can't participate in the young driver tests as the rules state "unless otherwise approved by the FIA, not have competed in more than two F1 World Championship races during their career."
Renault can also get Alonso to test the car in one of the practice sessions for the incoming races but Abiteboul is not keen on that. He feels that the team needs the current drivers to set up the cars properly for the races and qualification. Renault itself will be rebranded to Alpine-Renault in 2021 with a new livery inspired by the French national flag.
