Former-FIA Formula 1 World Champion Alain Prost has been named as special advisor to Renault Sport Formula One Team.
The Frenchman finished runner-up whilst at Renault in 1983 before going on to claim four championship titles. He also spent five years as the owner of Ligier. It is this experience that the team are hoping will prove invaluable to their current roster of drivers.
“He will bring to the team his great experience, great network, and also an ability to talk with the drivers, and having a specific network for that,” Jerome Stoll, Renault Sport Racing president, said.
Prost stressed that his role will be largely behind the scenes and that it is vital the team achieve success as soon as possible.
“What is important is that Renault can be competitive and win as soon as possible,” he said. “It is not the first time I am involved in Renault, but to be clear I will not have a day to day role, it will be more behind.
“Sometimes it is good to have this kind of situation,” he continued, “being on committees is important, important to give the best decision and best strategy to be a winning team in the future.”
And as if testing will not be tricky enough, Prost has revealed that he will be making the journey to Barcelona to keep an eye on the running. In his opinion, the cars this year with their chunky tyres can be likened to those in “the old days” and will stretch the drivers physically.
“As you can imagine, looking at the size of the car, it looks like the old days when we had the big tyres,” he continued. “I am going on Monday to Barcelona, and will be curious to see what they say. With the fast corners it will be tough for them physically.
“It will be good for F1,” he said of the regulation changes, “you need a new cycle, I hope we can bring new followers and new spectators, and I hope young spectators.”
