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Lookey-Likey #2 - Renault

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Crikey! The Jordan team are back! Black and yellow car, with B&H-style stripey bits - yep, definitely EJ's squad. It's who? Renault?!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (sorry, that should probably be a clipping MP3 file or something, shouldn't it?), where's the sponsorship? Not that I mind, mind (THAT looked weird!) - the cars always look better without logos all over them.

Here we go then....

Renault were pretty cool I reckon, as they saved announcing their 2nd driver until the day of the launch. Mind you, they had only signed him round about then as well. So a big "hello, comrade!" to Vitaly Petrov, 25, all the way from Russialand, who has apparently never driven a F1 car before. Eh?! I guess the fact that he's bringing an alleged £9 Million in sponsorship to the team will counterbalance that minor issue, though...

Lest we forget, Renault aren't really Renault, as the team are 75% owned by some organisation that sounds like the front for a Bond villain (Genii, or something), having come very close to pulling out of F1 after a season that saw them convicted for cheating, the loss of sponsors and their top management wallahs. Oh, and their star driver who won them 2 titles has bloggered off. Again. Still, could be worse (but not much). In their favour, they have got Bob Kubica, who could well win a race again, given the right car. How is the car, then? Worryingly, bits of it were covered in bin bags at the launch. Either they've got some tricksy new bit they don't want the others to see, or they haven't quite finished it yet... It's probably going to be a tough year for Renault, I think.

Robert Kubica is a top-notch driver, and deserved a better hand at BMW Sauber. Just when it looked like he was in with a shout of the title in 08, the team decided to concentrate on the 09 car. Which was a dog. He'll drag a performance out of the waspmobile this season, and might manage a few star-turns too.

Vitaly Petrov... erm... is Russian... and... oh yeah, he was 2nd to Hulkenberg in GP2 last season, so he's a least a pretty good pay-driver. But never driving an F1 car before? Sheesh...

Footnote - Renault manage an interesting double: Petrov is F1's first-ever Russian, and their test driver Ho-Ping Tung (No, really) is the first Chinese driver. Golly.

(Still Whitney. I should turn it off really.)
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