Romain Grosjean is on standby to replace Nelson Piquet at Renault for the European Grand Prix should the team overturn its exclusion from the next event on the calendar, AUTOSPORT has learned.
Renault is facing an FIA International Court of Appeal hearing in Paris on Monday against its one-race ban for allowing Fernando Alonso to return to the track at the Hungarian Grand Prix with his front right wheel not fully attached.
Until the outcome of that hearing is known, Renault is unable to confirm its plans for the next race - even though it has already informed Nelson Piquet that he will not drive for them any more.
Should the team's bid to overturn the ban not succeed, then Grosjean will almost certainly continue in his GP2 Series campaign for Valencia - where he currently lies second in the standings behind Nico Hulkenberg.
Should Renault get its punishment reduced, perhaps to a major fine, then Grosjean is top of the list to be slotted in alongside Fernando Alonso from the European GP.
AUTOSPORT understands that Grosjean has already had a seat-fitting at Renault's Enstone factory for the R29, and has conducted practice starts during straight line testing.
Piquet's departure from Renault came after a disappointing second season for the team, where he failed to score any points up until the Hungarian GP.
After being informed that he had been dropped, Piquet launched a scathing attack on team boss Flavio Briatore - who he labelled as his "executioner" in a statement.
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