FORMULA 1's Spanish 'population' is set to double next season: Legend and twice-world champion Fernando Alonso is set to return, two years after his shock announcement that he was bowing out after years of poor results in uncompetitive cars.
The Asturias-born crack has signed a deal with Rénault, the team with whom he won the 2005 and 2006 titles, and it has been revealed that the French scuderia had attempted to headhunt him to start even earlier.
Rénault had been keen to bring Alonso back on board before the end of the 2020 season, but his commitment to training for the world-famous Indianapolis 500 prevented him.
This is the only race left for Alonso to win to net himself the so-called motorsport 'triple crown' – he has already cracked the Le Mans 24-Hour and the Monaco Grand Prix – which would make him the only racing driver in history to do so after the UK's Graham Hill.
Speculation has been rife practically from the day Alonso announced his retirement from Formula 1, on August 15, 2018, that he would not stay away for long and, although he has repeatedly denied any imminent plans to make a comeback, the Spaniard made it clear that it was the lack of a competitive car which had led him to pack it in.
Fans and fellow drivers suspected that if he was offered a car with which he had a real chance of winning, he would snap up the offer.
Rénault has been dropping hints to Formula 1 followers for the last couple of days before making the announcement official – with videos on Twitter playing the sound of the V10 engine with which Alonso won the 2005 world championship title, and replaying his triumphant roar in Brazil when he realised he had clinched it.
He is likely to find Rénault very different from how he left it, sports commentators say – now with Cyril Abiteboul as team leader – when he hops into Daniel Ricciardo's slot as the Australian moves to McLaren, replacing Carlos Sainz Junior who is about to make a career leap of faith by leaving the latter team to join Ferrari, one of Formula 1's 'big three' and in which he knows he will be playing second fiddle to French prodigy Charles Leclerc and putting the challenge of shifting up a gear and the good of the team ahead of personal glory.
Sainz, a great friend of Alonso – who has been something of a mentor to him since the Madrid-born chip-off-the-old-block started out in the sharp end of motorsport – cheered when he heard the news, saying: “The Spanish mafia is back!”
After Alonso's departure ahead of the 2019 season, Carlos Sainz Jr was the only Spaniard left in Formula 1.
Alonso's team-mate on Rénault is France's Esteban Ocon, the jewel in the crown for Mercedes during his time on the scuderia and one of the most promising young drivers on the circuit, who admitted just before this year's Austrian Grand Prix that he would rather have the Spaniard as a colleague than German champion Sebastian Vettel, the other Rénault candidate for 2021 but who is currently without a team for next season after a string of disappointing results.
Fernando Alonso has struck a deal with Rénault, one of the three élite along with Red Bull and Ferrari, in which it is guaranteed his advice and requests will be listened to, that he will be surrounded by engineers he knows and trusts, and that he will play an active rôle in managing the team.
Given that Rénault is not going through its best moment financially at present, Alonso's salary will be about half that of Ricciardo's current wage – but at around €10 million per year, he is unlikely to have to tighten his belt to pay the bills.
Already photographed in Rénault colours (above left), Alonso, who comes from Oviedo, has said he is not expecting immediate triumph when he starts in 2021, but is 'optimistic' about the team's 'objectives for 2022'.
As well as dovetailing his F1 career with the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2018, Alonso's motorsport journey through life has seen him net 16 pole positions, 10 fastest lap records, win 17 races, and make it to the podium 41 times.
Photograph: Fernando Alonso in his new Rénault colours, ready to start with the French scuderia again 15 years after his last world championship title – by F1 Helmets on Twitter (@F1HLM)
SPAIN'S last-minute win against England in the 2024 UEFA Euros comes on the 60th anniversary of the country's first-ever title in the much-followed competition – and has broken numerous records, too.
A HOLLYWOOD legend joining folk-dancers from Asturias and showing off her fancy footwork in the street is not a scene your average Oviedo resident witnesses during his or her weekly shop. Even though their northern...
