Renault is preparing for the Third Coming, as Fernando Alonso returns to F1 next year with the Enstone team for which he drove in 2003-06 and 2008-09. What a long and storied tale they interweave around each other, glory and infamy.

He will be 39 years old as he begins the season (on the assumption that the 2021 season is underway before the end of July that year) and not unnaturally there have been questions about whether he can still perform at the level that brought him his past glories.

There have been questions too about his effect on the ambience of a team. It’s a subject around which there seems a sharp divergence of views. One veteran insider from Alonso’s infamous 2007 season at McLaren describes him to this day as, ‘the most disruptive and divisive figure I have ever had the displeasure of working with.’ Except that he didn’t use the word ‘figure’…