Renault to link up with Super Nova?

According to this week's Autosport magazine, Renault, which bought the Benetton Formula 1 team last year, may place two of its young drivers with the leading F3000 outfit for the coming season. If Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber sign for the team, Super Nova is likely to change its name to Renault.

Alonso won the Belgian round of last year's F3000 series and is under contract to Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore. The young Spaniard could put a spanner in the works, however, as he is thought to be first in line to drive for the flagging Minardi team, which is in the process of being bought by Australian entrepreneur, Paul Stoddart (see separate story).

"I told them I wanted to know this week whether I will have one or two of their drivers in my team," said Super Nova team boss David Sears. "It depends on what happens with Minardi, but Alonso and Webber would be a strong pairing."

Should Alonso sign for Minardi, then little is expected to change as Super Nova already has a link with Benetton and was unofficially known as the junior outfit to the Enstone-based team last year.

"We will find out this week if there is a long-term deal," said Sears, "otherwise we'll do what we have done in the past. We've been running F1 test drivers for a while now."

Renault Sport boss Patrick Faure is known to be looking at various options in both Formula 3 and F3000 to nurture drivers who have graduated from Formula Renault.