I will post separately on the wider topics of our conversation, which include his plans for Renault, how he is helping F1 engage with the internet and mobile phones and a whole new business model for an F1 team.

But the eye catching headline from the chat was what he said about Robert Kubica, who is a possible Ferrari target for 2011.

Kubica is having a strong season in the Renault, with 44 points on the board in only the fifth fastest car. He had a second place in Australia, fourth in Malaysia and fifth in China.

Recently there have been a lot of rumours suggesting Ferrari is lining up a move for Kubica as a possible replacement for Felipe Massa. He is known to be a favourite of Sergio Marchionne, boss of Ferrari’s parent company FIAT.

I spoke to Kubica’s manager Daniel Morelli at the weekend and he said that they have not yet been approached by Ferrari, but I got the impression that they were expecting some contact and should Ferrari make an offer, this would give Kubica quite a tough decision,

When I spoke to Lopez, I asked him how he was going to hold on to Kubica and he made it quite clear that he would build the Renault team around Kubica, in much the same way as Ferrari was once built around Michael Schumacher,
“He’s a racer, he lives for racing not politics, ” he said. “Robert has a unique opportunity to build a team around him. Few drivers have the talent that he has to do it and few teams would do it with someone.

“If he feels that the team is going in the right direction to become world champions, which is our intention, then he has no reason to go somewhere else. We both know what we are talking about (partnering Alonso at Ferrari). He would start a 100 metre dash, 200 metres behind the line. I don’t know if he’s interested (in going to Ferrari) but he’s a young driver, so he has plenty of time. If we can provide him with a car and a platform to win then I think there is a high probability that he stays.

“Our objective is to ensure that he contributes as much as possible. In his previous team (BMW) one of the big issues with Robert was that he couldn’t communicate as he wanted because he feared the backlash. Here he is being motivated and pushed to speak as much as he can. It’s a good fit. I’ve never seen him smile as much as he does now.”

Renault proved as recently as 2006 that it has the ability to win races and championships and most of the people are the same, with the obvious exception of Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore, who left the team after the Singapore crash scandal.

Lopez has noticeably restored the self confidence of the team after the scandal,
“The thing I’m proudest of is that this team has regained confidence to act as a constructor,” he said. “This team is proud to be Renault. It thinks for itself and acts for itself, it’s proud of itself and all that with the Renault name. I knew we could do it, but I didn’t know how quickly it would happen or how much.”

Lopez said that he encountered negativity in the early stages after the Singapore scandal when going in to see companies, “But it’s our job to make sure that we got rid of that,” he said. “The talent was always there. We arrived from the outside and people know us from other sectors and know what we do. We said that we want to do the same thing at Renault and they got it straight away.”

Was it a way for the manufacturer to pull out of the sport while appearing to stay involved? Was it a fig leaf to cover up the embarrassment of a pullout? Is this team still Renault, even though as much as 75% of the UK based team is now owned by Lopez? And why did they turn down an offer from David Richards, who wanted to rebrand the team Aston Martin and move his entire operation to the team’s Enstone base?

The new car was launched a week ago and is very much branded Renault; the livery is the corporate colour scheme of Renault, echoing the look and feel of the turbo cars back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. So what is this team all about?

Some insight into what Renault are up to and Lopez’ plans for the team comes from a punchy interview with the entrepreneur in l’Equipe this week.

All the talk in the internet business circles at the moment is of the importance of “platforms”, like Google, Facebook and the like. Lopez sees his F1 team as a “platform” and a “hub” around which he can construct a business network.

“Our desire has always been to come into F1 to represent our Mangrove Capital Partners company and develop our activity, which is international business, ” says Lopez. ” F1 will be a platform for us..a hub. We will entrust the racing team to specialists, while the Mangrove people take care of business.

“We will propose to our sponsors something other than a sticker on a car. We will propose collaborations with companies in our portfolio. For example, Genii (an arm of Mangrove) is working on an engine which reduces consumption by 40%. The development of this would benefit from a partnership with an oil company.”

And by being so closely aligned with Renault he hopes to propose to the automotive giant, “some interesting projects regarding new technology, the environment and so on, areas where we are very strong.”

Lopez is a big believer in internet in cars, for VOIP, navigation and other applications and has investments in programmes to perfect the technologies.

“If Renault is promoting its brand for the first time in a long time, it is doing so in a structured way,” said Lopez. “There was no point in us taking part in some sideshow where we act as a sightscreen for Renault to creep out of F1 on tip-toes. When we saw that Renault was prepared to show its colours in a serious way, we said ‘This is a partnership which could work.’ ”

He is not short of self-belief, “Mercedes aligned itself with Brawn because Brawn would bring it success. Renault has aligned with us because Genii can bring success, ” he says.

He argues that his approach to F1 is “do it properly or don’t do it at all.” When you have involvement in world renowned brands like Skype, “you can’t damage its reputation by mediocre performances in F1.”

Lopez does not want to be seen as a team boss. Genii installed Eric Boullier in Flavio Briatore’s old office as team principal. Renault will have a representative on the executive committee of the team. Boullier will represent the team at FOTA meetings, but Lopez will take up Renault’s seat at F1 Commission meetings, involving the FIA and will deal with Bernie Ecclestone.

He is an interesting character and it’s clear he is not doing the F1 team as a billionaire’s vanity exercise, but rather looking to establish a new business model, based on F1’s colossal following and media platform.