Fernando Alonso returns to the Formula 1 grid in 2021 with his old team Renault. In 2005 and 2006 he became world champion with the French team, his only two titles so far. However, the Spaniard still seems just as ambitious.
Alonso the enemy
Alan Permane is currently Sports Director at Renault, but in 2005 and 2006 he was the engineer of Alonso's teammate Giancarlo Fisichella at Renault. "Alonso was a little bit the enemy at that time. Of course, we couldn’t beat him, we couldn’t get anywhere near him," says Permane to GPfans.com.
We are now fifteen years further on, but during the filming day with Renault in Barcelona, he still saw the same driver in Alonso. "Already he’s questioning every detail and you can see he’s thinking about the future. Although we were running on Pirelli’s demonstration tyres which are quite a long way from the race tyres, he’s questioning every aspect of the car from the steering wheel layout to the rear ride height and things like that. I’m sure that side of it, that side and ambition hasn’t gone at all."