Abiteboul despite Alonso not happy with Ricciardo: ''Timing was not fine''

Fernando Alonso returns to Renault after Daniel Ricciardo leaves the French stable at the end of this year. Ricciardo's departure came as a surprise, but the talks with Alonso have been going on for much longer.

The return of Alonso is now officially known, but according to Cyril Abiteboul the talks have been going on for much longer. The departure of Ricciardo was a surprise for Renault and was certainly not appreciated, but from an interview with Abiteboul it becomes clear that there were already conversations with Alonso. Was Ricciardo allowed to stay at all?

''Talks with Fernando began well before Daniel's decision to leave us for McLaren. I don't know what would have happened if Daniel had made another choice, but let's be clear that the timing of Daniel's decision wasn't very nice for Renault. We were just working on other things," Abiteboul said to the BBC.

Now Abiteboul is happy with the decision, but you do wonder to what extent Abiteboul's statements about Ricciardo were justified. According to Abiteboul, Ricciardo dropped the team by leaving and lacked loyalty, but now it turns out that he himself already talked to Alonso. If Ricciardo hadn't left, would he have been kicked out by Abiteboul himself?