Renault is reportedly pushing for permission to give Fernando Alonso an outing at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi in December.
Due to Covid-19, the format of the test was changed from the usual two or three days of running to just a single day at Yas Marina and the test would be limited to either young drivers or those who have a maximum of two races of experience in Formula 1.
Teams though have been allowed to run two cars for that single day, and Renault is hoping to gain approval to do just that as they hope to give the certainly not young and/or inexperienced double world champion his first taste of F1 since April last year.
“Initially the approach was, I drive when I drive,” said team boss Cyril Abiteboul about Alonso via Motorsport.com.
“But now I get the feeling that he is really keen to get to have a go, even in the current car. So we are looking into the opportunity to do that, but being very sensible.
“So I mean, I’m not talking about any FP1 because frankly, he doesn’t need that: he doesn’t need the exposure of FP1 and we need clearly the setup opportunity.
“But we’d like to see [him in the car] because I can feel that he has a hunger for it.”
As it is, the outgoing Daniel Ricciardo had already ruled out handing his car over to Alonso for a Friday morning during 2020.
But after his teammate Esteban Ocon was able to run for Renault in Abu Dhabi last year, Abiteboul admits it would be the ideal chance for Fernando to shake off some rust.
“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.
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And the reason for the 39-year-old’s apparent rush to get back in the car, Renault’s narrow podium misses in recent races.
“At the start, it was much more about the future. It was let’s go very hard on 2022 and forget about 2021 and write off 2021,” Abiteboul explained.
“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.”
Given the high number of driver moves taking place for 2021, it was noted how other teams may back Renault’s push to have the same opportunity.