The car with the R24-07 chassis used by Fernando Alonso in the last three races of 2004 will be auctioned in Paris on February 2. In those GP, the Spanish obtained two fourth places and a fifth.
The Renault team was a surprise in 2005 and 2006 by beating the great teams of the time, McLaren and Ferrari, in an extraordinary duel in which Fernando Alonso established himself as the great star of the Formula 1.
But before that, in 2004, Renault was not yet ready to storm the world title, although the Spanish driver managed to get a pole and four podium finishes with a R24 evolved relative to its predecessor.
The R24 enabled Renault to finish the season in third place in the constructors’ championship after making significant changes compared to the R23B. These were primarily focused on the rear of the car and were courtesy of the adoption of a V10 engine at 72 degrees, instead of the 111-degree V10 engine used previously and which had given stiffness problems.
This is how Fernando Alonso spent them with the Renault R24.
The narrower V angle allowed for a much more sculpted packing of the pontoons and engine cover, dramatically improving aerodynamic performance at the rear of the car. The engine itself was also substantially stiffer than its predecessor, which in turn also improved the mechanical grip generated by the rear.
Now, RM Sotheby’s puts this car up for auction, specifically the R24-07 chassis, which was used by Fernando Alonso in the last three races of the season in China, Japan and Brazil, where he finished fourth, fifth and fourth respectively.
It was purchased by its current owner in 2016, at which point its iconic blue and yellow livery was recovered. Some colors that mark in a very special way the first years of Fernando Alonso in Formula 1 and that will be forever associated with his sporting career, as well as the blue tide that accompanied the Asturian through the world circuits between 2003 and 2006.