Renault chiefs made it no secret that they plan to be in a winning position by 2003, even challenge for the World Championship by 2004. Ambitious plan indeed, perhaps even presumptious, but how does the French company go about accomplishing this task? By gambling on a second-rate driving team, according to Karl Ludvigsen...

You wouldn't be reading this column if you weren't very much into racing in general and Formula One in particular. So here's a little test. Jot down what you know about the following racing drivers: Tiago Monteiro, Heikki Kovalainen, Fabio Carbone, Eric Salignon, Robert Kubica and Carlo van Dam. There are no prizes.

Give up? I would have. But these are names to remember, for all are being developed in Formula 3000, Formula 3 and Formula Renault by Renault. Young Dutchman van Dam is even farther down the ladder; he's competing in karting. They are among some 15 drivers that are backed in their careers by Renault Driver Development - RDD for short - owned 50-50 by Renault and Flavio Briatore. The driver-management company was originally set up by Briatore, and indeed many today still think that he manages these and other drivers personally. After he became connected with Renault, however, the French car company bought into his management operation and it is now RDD, operating to the specific benefit of Renault's F1 team.

We saw RDD in action big time last weekend. Jenson Button was shunted aside for 2003 in favour of 20-year-old Fernando Alonso by the Renault outfit. In spite of his inexperience, Alonso was in pole position in that race by virtue of being an RDD protege. The Renault manager with Formula One responsibility, Patrick Faure, made that crystal clear at the announcement. Briatore backed the choice, saying that after seeing test results "it's the second time in my life that I've had this feeling. The first time was with Michael [Schumacher]." He considers that Alonso is "naturally quick". Only time will tell whether he has the many other qualities a top driver needs.

Representing the people who pay the bills at Enstone (chassis) and Viry (engines), marketing man Faure has set tough targets for Renault. "This year we should be among the leaders," he proclaimed, "both on the starting grid and in the race. It is vital that we should move towards the top of the grid very quickly and start achieving convincing results in 2002, with a few podiums. After that, in 2003 and 2004, we should be in a position to win races and compete for the World Championship. It is important to remember that the current top teams took years to start winning races and therefore titles. For us, it's going to be a difficult, but daring challenge."

Bearing that in mind - that Renault wants to win sooner rather than later - I find it astonishing that the team is going into battle with a second-rate driving team. Although talented, Spaniard Alonso is cruelly inexperienced at this level of the sport. Jarno Trulli is undoubtedly quick, but all the 27-year-old has to show for his Formula One career so far is a single podium position in a Prost-Peugeot in 1999's European Grand Prix. If you were starting from scratch to create a world-beating Grand Prix team, and on a short time scale at that, would these be your ideal driver choices?

Flavio Briatore considers himself a tough taskmaster in the driver department. "I'm not the type to give folks a second chance," he said recently. "If you make a mistake once, you'll do it again. Of course everyone can make a little slip every now and again - everyone does that - but when things have been laid out clearly from the start and these rules aren't respected, I'm unequivocal. I won't accept a bad attitude, a bad atmosphere. And that goes for all levels: drivers, engineers, mechanics."

"A driver can be talented," Briatore continued, "but he's got to understand that he's the last link in the chain and that his work represents the toil of hundreds of other people. So he needs to have it made quite clear to him that a blunder can have huge consequences. I want to get 100% out of a driver, not 95%. The press was saying in 2001 that I was destroying Jenson Button's career. Well, if that's what it means to put an end to someone's career, I'd happily do it every day. Today, Jenson's enjoying his work. I'm not sure if I could have said the same last season."

So Briatore feels that he's well able to get the best from a driver. But if a driver hasn't enough to give - and I'm referring to the full panoply of requirements, from speed and durability to racecraft and technical savvy - one driver's 100% will be no better than another's 90%. And if Renault's to achieve its ambitious goals I think it should be looking to sign at least one driver who's a proven winner.

Easier said than done, you say? I agree. But if I were Renault I'd be looking to land such bigger fish as Jacques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis. I'd even be trying to coax Mika Hakkinen back from his apparent retirement. If Renault had Mika driving for its team, any lack of performance in races would be clearly down to the car, not the driver. That's how Ferrari found its way back from the wilderness with Michael Schumacher behind the wheel. Until Michael joined the team, shortfalls could always be blamed on the Scuderia's drivers - and often were. With him there, the cars had to make progress.

Speaking of Ferrari, how do the roles of Renault's key men relate to those at Maranello? As I see it, Patrick Faure is Luca di Montezemolo. He's the buffer between the money and the racing team, the guy who has to explain to the higher-ups (at Fiat, in Luca's case) when things go right or wrong. I hope Faure has the stamina needed to do this very tough job.

"I think it's vital to be a keen motor racing enthusiast in order to head up a Formula One team," the Frenchman says. "There are so many risks involved, so many unknowns, that in order to put your reputation on the line you have to have the slight touch of madness that makes for a true enthusiast! But that never stops me taking a cool-headed look at the situation and keeping a constant eye on what's going well and what needs further attention." If things don't go well, his career will be very much at risk.

If Faure is di Montezemolo, then Briatore must be Todt. Here are two very different kinds of men. Jean Todt is famous for his close attention to the Ferrari team, while Briatore is famous for his relationship (now concluded) with glamorous model Naomi Campbell. He also has considerable business savvy. At one time he owned Ligier, Minardi and 30% of the Benetton team. He sold out of all these when the market for Formula One teams was much stronger than it is now. He kept involved with Supertec, and when Luciano Benetton said he was thinking of selling, he was well placed to make a $120 million deal with Renault, who wanted to come back to the sport with a team of its own.

Briatore invested his Formula One earnings in a diversified palette of businesses. On Sardinia he owns an exclusive night club called Billionaire, while in Kenya his Lion in the Sun holding doubles as a resort and a spectacular home from home. In Italy he owns Pierrel Pharmaceuticals, an acquisitive company that is a leader in medical prostheses. Twiga is another brand that Briatore is developing.

One might be justified in thinking that a man with so many interests couldn't possibly provide the intense focus that the management of a Formula One team requires. He says this isn't a problem. "Everything is quite clear with Renault," he maintains. "Now I only deal with F1. Other people look after my private firms. My priority is F1 and it would be impossible to do my job and look after other interests.

"Having said that, I'm lucky enough to own firms that are doing well, which means one thing less to worry about. Sometimes, I'm cheeky enough to think that they'd be doing even better if I was there, but otherwise, everything's fine!" Nevertheless this looms as a possible point of future friction between Briatore and Renault if the team doesn't achieve its goals.

One major goal has been missed. Renault people made no secret of the fact that they wanted to have one of their drivers on the podium at Magny Cours. This was seen as a fitting aim for their home race, well into the 2002 season, the year in which Faure and his bosses expect "a few podiums". Renault chief Louis Schweitzer was at Magny Cours, where all he saw was a lonely single point for sixth scored by the driver his team has jettisoned, Britain's Jenson.

If I were Schweitzer I'd be calling Faure in for a Monday meeting to point out a few home truths. One is that the top three teams in Formula One today are hellaciously strong. We saw a titanic battle among Ferrari, McLaren and Williams in which no prisoners were taken. Just how, Schweitzer should be asking Faure, do you expect to be beating these guys in some races next year and denying them the World Championship in 2004? Also, he should be asking, how do you expect to be doing it with these drivers? In France we saw what the best drivers can do - even under adverse circumstances - and it was awesome.

France's labor laws are some of the most protective in the world. Job security is paramount. But by the end of 2003 I think some of the key jobs in the Renault setup will be in jeopardy. It's just not that easy to break into the top ranks of Formula One.