Renault couldn’t come close to bringing their last plan to fruition, but their new one with Alpine has gotten off to an encouraging start…

It’s the 13th of December, 2020, and the sun has not only set on that year’s Formula 1 season but also on the five-year plan that Renault spoke of having when they returned to the grid in 2016.

Said plan was to regularly finish in the top three by 2019 and fight for the World Championship by 2020, and they were confident of achieving those goals.

“If you look at it historically, it took Renault five years from when they bought Benetton to win their first championship, it took Mercedes five years from buying Brawn to win their first championship, it took Red Bull five years from buying Jaguar to win a first championship,” said chief technical officer Bob Bell.