Currently reading: Autocar confidential: Aston's Valkyrie confidence, Renault prepared to splurge on F1 and more

Our reporters empty their notebooks to round up a week in gossip from across the automotive industry

In this week's round-up of automotive gossip, Tobias Moers shares his confidence about the forthcoming ride of the Aston Martin Valkyrie, Luca de Meo expresses his commitment to Renault's F1 effort and more.   

The rise of the Valkyrie

The Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar has been beset by complications and delays, but that’s nothing for new CEO Tobias Moers. Referencing the long-awaited Mercedes-AMG One, he said: “In my past life I had a complicated hypercar and now I have another.” Moers added: “It’s still a challenge, but we have breakthroughs and we’re making good progress. We’ve changed a lot with the new engineering team, including our testing approach, and I’m confident we’ll get to the finish line by the second half of this year.”

Renault's F1 fund

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Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo has said the firm’s newly rebranded Alpine Formula 1 team is committed to the sport for the foreseeable future and is prepared to spend the necessary money to ensure victories. “We’re in Formula 1 for the long run and we’re here to win,” he said. “We will put all required means to be at [our] best competitive level.” The team is hopeful that it will continue from its impressive finish to the 2020 season, in which Daniel Ricciardo (now at McLaren) and Esteban Ocon scored three podiums.

Ioniq's future uncertain

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The future remains unclear for the Hyundai Ioniq following the launch of the unrelated Ioniq 5 and the Ioniq sub-brand for electric vehicles. Speaking at the launch of the 5, product director Raf Van Nuffel said: “The Ioniq brand is evolving from a designation of one model to a line-up brand with several models. The current car will go on with its life cycle. The future of Ioniq, though, is the Ioniq 5 and further battery-electric vehicles.”

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