 The Autoweek Dispatch: Fernando Alonso Heads Back to Renault, While the Next-Gen Mercedes S-Class Is Jammed with Tech Alonso won two titles with Renault. Can he do it again? BY WES RAYNAL We made it through the first big racing weekend and bam! Here comes another one! And Monday is a huge day, with Ford finally launching the Bronco. Be sure to check us out Monday, July 13, at 8 p.m. Meanwhile, here's what else is happening in the car world: QUOTE OF THE WEEK "Traditional car ownership may not provide the flexibility required by some in the modern world, and with Pivotal we are able to offer an alternative, premium option (and) a chance to experience living with different vehicles." —Isobel Dando, managing director of Pivotal, Jaguar-Land Rover's just-announced subscription service, explaining why JLR is launching such a feature curiously at the same time Mercedes-Benz is getting rid of its service. Which automaker has the right strategy?
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK Did you watch Formula 1's 2020 season opener in Austria? You'll recall it's the first of eight-straight European races as F1 tries to put together some semblance of a season. Depending on your viewpoint it was an exciting race with gobs of interesting plot twists and intrigue, differing team strategies, dashed hopes and dreams coming true. Or on the other hand you might have thought it a was snoozefest that put people to sleep around the world, with Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas having such a huge lead all day the announcers had little to report with no choice but to go crazy when there was a pass for eighth place or a 16th-place car went out with some sort of malfunction. One thing that's indisputable is the attrition rate was sky-high. There were only 11 cars running at the end. To get the straight story our Joe Saward, one of just a handful of F1 journalists credentialed at the moment, poked around the garage area and talked to team principals, F1 officials and race engineers and wrote a fascinating piece about why so many cars dropped out. One factor: The Red Bull Ring's high altitude makes a car's air-dependent systems work harder. To find out the rest of the story check out Saward's piece here. F1 is back at the Ring this weekend.
RACING LINES In one of motorsports' worst-kept secrets Fernando Alonso is returning to Renault, the team that helped bring him two F1 World Championships. He previously drove for the outfit from 2003-06 and again in 2008-09. The move makes Alonso the first driver in F1 history to drive three separate stints for the same team. He's replacing Daniel Ricciardo, who is moving to McLaren. Alonso's Renault teammate is up-and-comer Esteban Ocon. Seven-time NASCAR Cup champ Jimmie Johnson has twice tested negative for COVID-19 so can race Sunday (7/12) at Kentucky Speedway. Johnson missed the Brickyard 400 last Sunday, snapping his streak of 663 straight starts dating back to 2002. A bunch of racing entities are approved for loans under the Paycheck Protection Program. The U.S. Small Business Administration released its list of PPP loan data on the U.S. Department of the Treasury website; the SBA administers the loans. Our list only shows approved entities, not necessarily those who accepted the money.
CAR NEWS AND NOTES This week's In The Car With features industry standout and Aston Martin U.S. boss Laura Schwab. Schwab spoke to our Mark Vaughn and appropriately both were in Astons, Vaughn's a red V8 Vantage coupe and Schwab's a DB11 Volante. Through the magic of the web they each dialed up Skype, put their smartphones on the dash and chatted away. Check out new episodes of In The Car With every Wednesday on autoweek.com or on our YouTube page. (You are subscriber, right?) We hope you'll join us for the ride! Toyota Gazoo Racing is adding to its list of spare parts for vintage-Toyota enthusiasts. After starting with A70/A80 Supra parts last May, GR is adding the spectacular 2000GT. The lithe 2000GT was launched in 1967 and stayed on sale until 1970. Only 337 were built. Initially Gazoo is offering transmission- and differential-related parts. Mercedes-Benz's next-gen S-Class, due in September, looks like it could be the most tech-heavy luxury car on the market. Why? Believe it or not the dang thing has five screens (not a typo!) inside. The center display is almost 13 inches (diagonally) and features Benz's second-generation MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience) infotainment system. In addition to the center screen there's another screen where the gauges would be, and the passengers in the back get three screens of their own—they all use the MBUX system, too. Oh, and the head-up display uses augmented reality when navigating; for example, using eye tracking, arrows could be projected onto the road lane. Crazy!
WHAT WE'RE DRIVING When not conducting interviews from inside an Aston former California Assistant Treasurer-turned-West Coast Editor Mark Vaughn has been tooling around LA in the beautiful Polestar 1, the $150K-plus hybrid from Volvo's in-house tuner. Vaughn's opinion is that while the car is indeed a stunner it could use some help in the dynamics department. Taking a page from Vaughn's playbook, Patrick Carone did some time out east in Ferrari's F8 Spider. Turns out it's Carone's first trip out of Manhattan since COVID-19 walloped the city a few months ago. In fact it's he and his wife's first time venturing more than a couple blocks from their apartment. What a way to bust out of lockdown!
MOSTLY ODDS, SOME ENDS If you're like me you can spend hours watching cars scream around racetracks—I could watch supercars fly around the Nürburgring all day. We just posted the boys from the Comrades YouTube channel taking a McLaren Senna out to a public day on the 13-mile legend, flicking around hapless slower cars like they were literally parked. It even starts drizzling halfway through the lap. Check it out, it's good fun.
LISTEN UP The 117th Autoweek Podcast is sort of a racing special, with our F1 writer Joe Saward checking in from Europe to join Wesley Wren, Mike Pryson and Robin Warner to tell listeners about his time at the Austrian Grand Prix. The gang analyzes the race, the troubles the teams faced and what it's like to attend an F1 race during a global pandemic. Later in the show Warner interviews Porsche sports car driver Nick Tandy. Tune in here, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever podcasts are played.WHAT'S AHEAD As always we're on the case this weekend, monitoring and reporting on automakers' and sanctioning bodies' latest happenings. We'll continually update the site of course—you'll know what's happening when we do. Check back often! Thanks for reading Autoweek and please stay safe.
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