JULY 4, 2004

No announcement from Renault

Renault did not announce its driver at the French GP as had been expected and it seems that this is because Jarno Trulli and Flavio Briatore are unable to agree financial terms on a new contract and Jarno is threatening to take up an offer from Toyota.

However this does not mean that Mark Webber will be at Renault next year because it is fairly clear that the Australian would prefer to go to Williams in 2005. Indeed the big push now is likely to be to get Jaguar to agree to release Webber to Williams this summer to replace the injured Ralf Schumacher. Jaguar has a variety of options as a replacement but it too would probably prefer to make a decision based on who will be in the team next year, as that they can get settled into the team in advance of the new season. The Jaguar test and reserve driver Bjorn Wirdheim is obviously one possibility but Anthony Davidson, the BAR test driver, is a favourite of team boss Tony Purnell and it is also possible that Red Bull might push to get Formula 3000 racer Vitantonio Liuzzi into the team.