It's time for Renault to give their own youth academy a chance in F1

The forgotten academy of Renault

You might forget, but Renault also have a junior academy. The last driver to enter Formula 1 as a Renault junior you wonder? Romain Grosjean. In 2009, as a Renault junior, the Frenchman had the opportunity to race the second half of the season as a teammate of Fernando Alonso. So not a single Renault junior has been promoted to Formula 1 since the team returned in 2016.

Currently, the team that now goes through life as Alpine in Formula 1 has six talents in the locker: Max Fewtrell and Christian Lundgaard have been involved with the team since 2017, Caio Collet and Guanyu Zhou since 2019 and from 2020 Oscar Piastri and Hadrien David can call themselves Renault academy members. 

Plenty of opportunities for a junior to make his debut

But what good is that if you don't get a chance in Formula 1? When Daniel Ricciardo chose to exchange Renault for McLaren at the beginning of 2020, Renault had the perfect opportunity to finally get a junior promoted again. The lead candidate for that spot was Zhou, who hopes to become the first-ever Chinese F1 driver. Lundgaard was the other option for the second Renault seat, but that might have been too quick a switch.

Ultimately, all of that didn't matter when Fernando Alonso was signed. The now 39-year-old driver will join the Enstone team for the third time, where he won the title in 2005 and 2006. With this, Renault shares a big sneer at its own youth. Rather than educating the youth, Renault prefers Alonso, who enters his final Formula 1 years and grumbles at the first moment when something goes wrong. Incidentally, Esteban Ocon is entering his fourth full season. You would think that the French could lead a team and teach a rookie the tricks of the trade.

The dropouts

In addition to the fact that Renault hardly offers its juniors any chances in Formula 1, the team is often fed up with the youngsters it hires. No fewer than 12 drivers have been shown the door since 2016. Incidentally, of those 12, only one driver made it to Formula 1: Jack Aitken replaced George Russell at Williams during the Sakhir Grand Prix in 2020. Oliver Rowland was also a highly acclaimed talent who drove long before the Renault academy. Instead of Formula 1, he got a chance in Formula E. In addition to those talents, Jolyon Palmer, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg also got the kick from Renault in recent years. Of those three, none came from the Renault academy.

What now? Piastri is certain of a Formula 2 seat in 2021, but Zhou and Lundgaard are still waiting for official confirmation of a new F2 season. However, a switch to F1 in 2022 does not seem to be possible for a Renault junior. For now, Alonso is still under contract until 2022 and as long as no crazy things happen, Ocon will probably also be an Alpine driver in 2022. In addition, according to the latest rumours, Pierre Gasly seems to be the desired replacement if one of the two current drivers does not perform.

This article was written and originally published by Bonne on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.