Formula One: Alonso returns to Renault; Heikki Kovalainen’s options McLaren and Toyota

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Formula One driver Fernando Alonso has signed a contract for the upcoming season with Renault. The 26-year-old Spaniard returns to the French team, with which he won the F1 World Championship in 2005 and 2006.
      This past year Alonso drove with McLaren, finishing third in the overall points behind Finland’s Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) and his McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain.
      It was a turbulent and sometimes acrimonious relationship, and Alonso and McLaren decided already in November to cancel the contract between the two of them.
      Alonso’s return to Renault gained momentum last week, when the sport’s governing body the FIA decided not to punish Renault for the possession of confidential information concerning rivals McLaren.
     
Alonso landed in F1 and the Renault team back in 2001. Since then he has raced in 105 GP events, winning 15 of them. In all, the Spaniard has made it to the podium 49 times.
      Heikki Kovalainen’s Renault career ended on Monday, when the team named Nelson Piquet Jr as its second driver.
      This is Piquet Jr’s debut in the F1 series.
     
The best guesses for Kovalainen’s team for the season 2008 focus on two names: McLaren and Toyota. Kovalainen himself does not seem concerned about not continuing with Renault.
      "For quite some time we have been looking in different directions. And I still have two better choices than Renault for the upcoming season", Kovalainen told the Finnish commercial television station, MTV3.
      Some pundits argued that Kovalainen was to some extent the victim of "being too good": it was thought that harmony in the Renault team might be upset by a driver who could compete head-to-head with Fernando Alonso. After the in-fighting seen this year in the McLaren stable, Renault thought twice about putting anyone into the cockpit who might pose a threat to the Spaniard.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  FIA to determine outcome today of Brazilian GP - and possibly Kimi Räikkönen´s drivers´ championship (16.11.2007)

Links:
  FIA
  Renault F1

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