Great CommentsI have been reading some lively comments recently and there have been great ones. There are 2 guys here who have been engaged in a discussion around Alonso Back in the Car in January. It is kool to see how we have a small forum created in the comments. Watch them go…

Most recent comments at bottom,..keep going guys!

Reno Spiteri: OK, so Fernando will be testing initially on the R27 between the 14/16th January. This is good because that is the way to compare the performance of the R27 with the new R28 and to make the necessary improvements to have a competitive car for 2008. Renault have won championships with Williams through Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. They won a further two championships with Fernando in 2005 and 2006 when they were racing Ferrari with Michael Shumacher. They have the resources, the expertise and now the driver. So there is nothing to hold them back to have the R28 up there where it belongs: No.1 on the grid.

fast911ray: Correct me if I’m wrong..but did’nt Nigel Mansell [arguably the very best British pilot of the modern era] win a champpionship aboard a Williams-Renault even before Hill and Jacques?

Reno Spiteri: Yes you are quite correct. Nigel Mansell won the Championship in 1992 in a Williams/Renault car, and he was followed by Alain Prost who also won the Championship in a Williams/Renault in 1993.

The Jacques Villeneuve case proves my point in that if you put an excellent driver in a state of the art car his chances of performing and winning a championship are superlative. Damon Hill and Villeneuve eventually fell by the wayside when they moved to Jordan and to BAR respectively.

Reno Spiteri: By the way, Michael Schumacher also won a Championship using a Renault engine. He won the 1995 Championship in a Benetton- Renault.
The previous year (1994) he won in a Benetton-Ford.

fast911ray: Reno.I believe that you are mistaken about Alain winning a championship in a Renault powered car. True, he did drive F1 for ‘La Regie’ from 1979-1983. His most notable year was 1983 while piloting the fantastic RE30, which took him to within 1 point of the title… captured by Nelson Piquet in a Brabham-BMW.

Sucess did not arrive for Alain until taking a seat in the all conquering Porsche powered TAG-McClaren in 1984. He finished 2nd to Niki Lauda that year, and finally crowned champion in 1985.

Alain did take over Guy Ligier’s ‘Ligier-Gitanes’ team in the mid 1990’s, renaming it ‘Prost-Renault’. Initaly they were powered by Renault until dropped by Renault-Sport. Peugeot motors powered Prost’s cars for a bit, then finally Honda. None were able to provide success however. The team went into oblivion later in the decade.

Incidentally, the Nomex I’m currently using is one bought from an ex-’Prost’ team member.

Reno Spiteri: Hi there fast911ray. Sorry to dissappoint you but for 1993 Alain Prost won the FI World Championship for the 4th time in the Williams FW15C-Renault V10 car. His race results for that year (1993) were as follows: 1st-7 races; 2nd-3 races; 3rd-2 races; 4th-1 race; he came 12th in 2 races and had one retirement.

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