5 Drivers Who Could Replace Romain Grosjean at Renault in 2016 Formula 1 Season
Whether they have competed under the guise of Renault or Lotus, Team Enstone have played an instrumental role in the career of Romain Grosjean.
After joining the team as a test driver at the beginning of 2008, the Frenchman made his Formula One debut in mid-2009, only to be dropped after seven races as Renault—on their knees in the aftermath of the "Crashgate" scandal—embarked upon a transitional stage.
A period of soul searching for both parties followed before the prodigal son, then the GP2 champion, was rewarded with a full-time F1 seat for 2012, igniting one of the most powerful team-driver relationships of the modern era.
Lotus guided Grosjean through the most difficult period of his career in 2012—when a number of first-lap collisions culminated in a one-race ban—and he has returned the favour since the end of 2013, emerging as the team's stalwart, the one true constant at a time their very existence has come under threat.
Their partnership, which has produced a total of 10 podium finishes, was such that it was almost impossible to imagine Grosjean representing another team.
The timing of his move to the new Haas outfit, however, has left his spiritual home in a very difficult position ahead of Renault's proposed repurchase of Lotus and their return to the grid as a works team in 2016.
With most existing teams opting to retain their current drivers for next season, Renault have limited options in their search to find a new team-mate for Pastor Maldonado, whose contract extension was recently confirmed.
In a stable transfer market, there are few available drivers who seem ready to lead a full-blown factory operation, and Renault's return may be defined by a rather underwhelming lineup.
Here are five drivers who could be presented with the daunting task of replacing Grosjean.
Jean-Eric Vergne
Just 20 days after his final Formula One appearance for Scuderia Toro Rosso at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Jean-Eric Vergne participated in a Formula E event in Uruguay.
But despite only driving the all-electric car for the first time earlier that day, and being forced to complete his lap time when the track was at its dirtiest, he set a comfortable pole position.
It was a statement that, in a series full of F1 rejects, Vergne didn't deserve to be competing against has-beens such as 41-year-old Jarno Trulli and 38-year-old Nick Heidfeld, but alongside the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in the pinnacle of motorsport.
The Frenchman had appeared to be making steps toward an F1 return in 2016, telling Motorsport.com's Charles Bradley in August how his status as a Ferrari development driver would aid his chances of landing a Haas seat.
Yet Grosjean's surprise move to the American team, and the fact that Esteban Gutierrez is likely to be Ferrari's welcome gift to Haas—for both sporting and commercial reasons—will leave Vergne, who has signed for the DS Virgin Racing team for the second season of Formula E, searching for an alternative route back to F1.
As noted by Sky Sports' David Croft, Vergne's nationality would theoretically allow Renault to retain the support of Total, the French oil company and Grosjean's personal sponsor, who first linked up with the team in 2009.
Vergne, of course, was evenly matched alongside Daniel Ricciardo during their stint as team-mates between 2012 and 2013. And being offered the opportunity to lead a factory team may provide the 25-year-old with a confidence boost similar to what the Australian experienced following his promotion to Red Bull Racing in 2014.
Vergne, according to F1 journalist Peter Windsor, was one of the most "emotional" personalities on the grid throughout his initial spell in the F1 paddock—perhaps a consequence of the unforgiving atmosphere within Red Bull's young-driver program—and the satisfaction of being "hired on merit" could allow him to progress to the next level in terms of performance.
It wouldn't be the first time Team Enstone helped a young French driver reach their potential.
Stoffel Vandoorne
For the second successive season, McLaren-Honda's decision to retain Jenson Button has blocked the paths of two of the most exciting young talents in Formula One.
But while Kevin Magnussen's F1 career—having missed out on vacancies at McLaren and, almost certainly, Haas—is now in tatters, Stoffel Vandoorne still has enough momentum behind him to force his way onto the 2016 grid.
After finishing second in the drivers' standings in his rookie campaign in 2014, the Belgian has dominated GP2 this season, recording five victories, seven further podium finishes and scoring points in all but one of the first 16 races.
He is currently on course to enjoy the most commanding championship-winning campaign in the series' 10-year history, but as is often the case in motorsport—and as Magnussen will testify—it is not only what you do, but who you know that is key to a driver's success.
And when Renault's purchase of Lotus is finalised, that will be a huge advantage for Vandoorne, with F1 journalist James Allen claiming Frederic Vasseur "is the preferred candidate" to become the Renault team principal.
That is the same Frederic Vasseur who has overseen Vandoorne's progress at ART Grand Prix, the renowned GP2 team, over the last 18 months and who, per Motorsport.com's Valentin Khorounzhiy, claims it would be an "absolute denial of the ladder system" if the Belgian didn't race in F1 next season.
Vasseur's confidence that McLaren "will free (Vandoorne) from his contract" if he is not promoted by the team for 2016 displays a strong understanding of the driver's relationship with his employers, and it suggests the 46-year-old is waiting to pounce.
With GP2 champions prevented from defending their crown—a function of the F1 feeder series' commitment to producing new talent—Vandoorne will have to make a move soon if he is to avoid the same fate of 2014 title winner Jolyon Palmer, who has spent much of the 2015 season in the GP2 commentary box.
Sebastien Buemi
That Sebastien Buemi can even be considered a possible contender for a works seat, despite not competing in Formula One since 2011, is indicative of the lack of depth available to Renault at this stage of the driver market.
Yet unlike others who have been chewed up and spat out by Red Bull's young-driver scheme over the last decade, Buemi has remained relevant, holding a reserve-driver role at Red Bull Racing since 2012 and forging a career as a classy, highly successful racing driver.
Buemi won the World Endurance Championship with Toyota in 2014 and, this year, missed out on the inaugural Formula E championship by just a single point, despite winning more races than any other driver and, along with Vergne, claiming the most pole positions.
And it is his work with e.dams Renault that could allow Buemi to manipulate his way back into F1. The French company's Formula E team is headed by four-time world champion and Renault ambassador Alain Prost, who is set to become a shareholder of the revived F1 operation, according to Autosport's Ian Parkes.
Still only 26, but with the knowledge and experience of representing and leading a high-profile manufacturer to success, Buemi would be a conservative, unadventurous, but dependable choice as Renault embark upon the long (and probably painful) transition from engine provider to a major racing team.
Renault, of course, could do better. But they could also do much worse.
Daniel Ricciardo
Will Red Bull stay or go?
The energy-drinks manufacturer have made several quit threats over the course of the 2015 season, most of which have been treated with the contempt they deserved.
But with the F1 team having ended their relationship with Renault and with no guarantee that Mercedes or Ferrari will supply power units for 2016, there is a growing risk that Red Bull could be frozen out of F1.
That would not only harm the sport itself—instantly removing four cars from the grid—but the careers of four drivers who make modern-day F1 worthwhile, leaving Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat, as well as Toro Rosso rookies Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr, facing uncertain futures.
Should drivers of their calibre be released into the wild, it would spark a stampede for their services. Other teams would be wise to delay their driver-related decisions simply to pick at Red Bull's carcass should the four-time world champions be forced to withdraw.
As a three-time grand prix winner, a future world champion and a popular member of the paddock, Ricciardo would be at the top of any team's shortlist, and while the Australian is deserving of a race-winning car, merely securing a seat for 2016 would be an achievement if Red Bull suddenly abandoned their drivers.
And besides, it would be the final insult to Red Bull if Ricciardo, arguably their biggest asset, became Renault's poster boy following the wearisome war of words between the two parties since 2014.