OCTOBER 29, 2001

Renault to seek out new talent

THE Renault car company is trying to help France rebuild its shattered image as a supplier of F1 drivers. There was a time when there were as many as 10 Frenchmen in Formula 1 but in recent years the country's involvement in F1 has tailed off because of the lack of money available to young Frenchmen. This is largely due to the passage of Evin's Law which banned all tobacco and alcohol sponsorships in the France and the cutbacks made by Elf.

There are however signs that Renault is going to fight back with a scheme, running on Monday at Estoril, to test a series of young drivers from all over the world to try to find some new stars. Among those testing will be Poland's Robert Kubica, Holland's Carlo Van Dam and Fabio Corbone from Brazil.

Renault is fortunate in that there are also a number of young drivers coming up through Formula Renault. One name which is being mentioned more and more at the moment is that of Vitantonio Liuzzi, who last weekend won the World Super A Karting title for the CRG factory team. Liuzzi has been a very busy man this year because in addition to running the full World Championship karting schedule he has also been racing in German Formula Renault. He finished second in that series in his first year of car racing so clearly he is a man to be watched.