Renault chief Flavio Briatore admitted on Sunday to missing world champion Fernando Alonso.
Alonso switched to McLaren over the winter and at Albert Park finished 7.2 seconds behind winner Kimi Raikkonen.
The best Renault runner, Alonso’s former teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, crossed the chequered flag one minute later, leading Briatore to recall 1996.
After 1995, back to back world champion Michael Schumacher switched from Benetton to Ferrari.
“In the same way that I missed Michael then, now I miss Fernando,” the Italian team principal said.
To the newspaper ‘Welt’, he admitted that the loss of the Spaniard has cost Renault about half a second per lap.
