Five candidates for Alonso seat, Bourdais too

UPDATE There is talk in France that Sebastien Bourdais might come back from the United States next year to drive for the Renault F1 team – if the team does not sign a deal with Michael Schumacher.

Kimi Raikkonen is expected to move to Ferrari and with Fernando Alonso at McLaren there is no obvious F1 candidate to lead the team. Bourdais would be a good candidate as he is both cheap and French (the French market is still very important to Renault) although his record with Flavio Briatore has not been an easy one.

Bourdais's domination of Champ Car racing is such that there is nothing left for him to achieve as he is already well on his way to a third consecutive title having won the first three races of the season. Grandprix.com

05/22/06 (GMM) Flavio Briatore has named five potential replacements for Renault's departing champion, Fernando Alonso.

The team principal backed up recent speculation by mentioning Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen, but Briatore added that incumbent Giancarlo Fisichella has also 'shown (that) he can win races with us'.

McLaren-bound Alonso, 24, will be a 'big loss' to the French owned team, the Italian chief confessed in a Monaco preview on Monday.

But he also threw youngsters Heikki Kovalainen, Renault tester, and McLaren protégé Lewis Hamilton into the hat, conceding that the pair 'could possibly win championships'.

Briatore commented: ''To attract those drivers, we need to be quicker than the opposition and at the moment, we are delivering.''