Alpine is having to use more “intuition” in 2021 in order to assess the merits of the Renault engine. That is the admission of Fernando Alonso, referring to the fact that Renault’s last engine customer – McLaren – switched to Mercedes power over the winter. “We are the only team with the Renault engine and that is a bit different from last year,” the Spaniard said at Imola. Alonso has also responded to 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who said this week that the two-time F1 champion is unlikely to return to the Indy 500 “because he realised that doing just that race is not enough”. Finally, Alonso said he has postponed publication of his autobiography ‘Racer’ due to his return to Formula 1 this year.

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