Renault's 2017 driver decision expected after Monza

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Renault team principal Frederic Vasseur says his team is likely to make a decision on its 2017 driver line-up "at the beginning of September".

Kevin Magnussen and rookie Jolyon Palmer have led the team on its return to F1 following Renault's takeover of Lotus in December, with Magnussen scoring its only points so far this season in Russia. Vasseur says both drivers are improving as the year goes on while the team tries to rebuild following a number of years of financial difficulty.

“It’s not easy for them either,” he told the official Formula 1 website. “They have been used to winning in the past - and now they are cut off from that.

“I see both of them improving. Keep in mind that Jo is a rookie and Kevin did only one season [of F1] before - and that was two years ago.

“Jo has been improving a lot - true he spun in Hungary, but so far he did a good job. And that also goes for Kevin. Both have a very optimistic approach. They are a good support for the team.”

However, Vasseur believes future success for Renault will need to come with a lead driver as the focal point for the team.

“If you look at the success stories of the past, success was always built around a driver: [Michael] Schumacher and Ferrari, [Sebastian] Vettel and Red Bull, Lewis [Hamilton] and Mercedes, and also [Fernando] Alonso and Renault in the past - so the driver is important.

“A driver is not only about performance, but about being capable of leading a team. Right now we have more or less a thousand people in the team, if you take Viry and Enstone together, and that needs some sort of emotional leadership - and that is the job for a driver! We need a driver who is super-motivated and able to super-motivate everybody else.”

Asked if Magnussen and Palmer fit the criteria, and when a decision might be made on next year's line-up, Vasseur replied: “They are improving!

"We know we are on the grid, so ‘improving’ is written in capital letters for us. It is too early to make any decision right here and now. We will probably do it at the beginning of September."

The Italian Grand Prix takes place on September 4, with the final race of the European season forming a back-to-back with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.