Why Renault opted for Alonso over Vettel, Hulkenberg or its own talent

Cyril Abiteboul discussed why Renault didn't choose Sebastian Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg or, for example, talent from its own academy as a replacement for Daniel Ricciardo. According to the team boss of Renault, the timing also played a very important role.

"It has been a mix of the things that I have mentioned previously," Abiteboul starts telling Motorsport.com. "The timing was also important, in particular for the younger option that you mentioned coming from our academy. We remain extremely committed to the Renault Sport Academy and in particular Guanyu Zhou and Christian Lungaard in F2".

The 42-year-old Frenchman said he couldn't even choose Zhou or Lungaard because they didn't have the right papers to drive in Formula 1 yet. "But we may have to wait until mid-December to know if they have super licenses for next year. And that would not have been an option frankly." By now it is known that Formula 2 will end at the end of September, but at the time of this interview, that knowledge wasn't there yet.

Alonso preferred over Vettel and Hulkenberg

But why didn't Renault chase after Vettel or Hulkenberg? "Going back to the others, I guess that above everything else, I would mention motivation. The mix of the mindset and motivation were an important element, plus also the timing of this (crises)”, says Abiteboul about his choice of Fernando Alonso for the next two years. So the 39-year-old driver has made it very clear in his conversations with Abiteboul that he is very motivated to achieve great results for the French race team.