APRIL 16, 2002

Renault confirms Monteiro

IT is no big surprise that Portugal's Tiago Monteiro has been named as a member of the Renault F1 Driver Development Program. The youngster has raced for most of his career in France and is backed by Renault Portugal. He drives from Super Nova Racing in Formula 3000 and the team has a link with Renault as the cars are running in Renault F1 colors. This is believed to have been funded through the French motor sport federation's Equipe de France program. This is funded by Playstation and a number of other French firms and rumors say that Renault is a big contributor. Tiago's backing from Renault Portugal will no doubt have helped.

It is expected that at some point or other Super Nova Racing's number one driver Sebastien Bourdais will also be named as a Renault driver although he is still believed to be in negotiation with the driver management company involved. Renault seems to be keen on the idea but Bourdais wants to retain some of his independence and not sign a contract which will tie him down in the years ahead. There are now so many drivers involved with Renault that there is a dangerous that there will be too many drivers involved.