JUNE 22, 2004

Renault to announce drivers at French GP?

Traditionally Renault likes to announce its drivers at the French Grand Prix and it is expected that the two current incumbents will be kept on for another season, despite recent rumours that Jarno wanted more money than Renault was willing to pay. Jarno seemed to have options at Williams and Toyota but we believe that the logical move for him is to stay where he is and that an agreement has been made. This will open the way for Williams to confirm the signing of Mark Webber, which we expect to see at the British Grand Prix and we also anticipate that there will be an announcement in the same period confirming that Ralf Schumacher will be at Toyota. The second Toyota drive may also have been settled with our sources hinting that the man most likely to be alongside Ralf in 2005 is Olivier Panis, the team realizing that stability is an important element in growth. We would expect to see serious efforts by Toyota to place Ryan Briscoe with another team so that he can get back to racing. This will mean that the driver market will be focussed more than ever on the second Williams drive with the men in the picture likely to be David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella and perhaps Antonio Pizzonia. There may be others in the frame but at the moment the team is not giving anything away.