Jenson Button will not be driving for Renault next year. The rumours had been floating around for a while, but in Magny-Cours on Saturday, Renault confirmed that it was letting the Brit go at the end of the season, to be replaced by their current test driver, Fernando Alonso. Renault F1 President Patrick Faure justified the decision by explaining that "while Jenson is contracted to another team ( a reference to Button’s contract with Williams,) Fernando is part of the Renault Driver Development programme. We feel that his performance this year as our test driver has been so promising that his great potential needs to be exploited straight away."

Faure refused to be drawn on whether he thought the Englishman had done a better job this year than Jarno Trulli, who stays with Renault next year.

Button’s manager, John Byfield made a brief statement after the conference. The gist of it was that Jenson has already signed to drive for another team in 2003 and an announcement would be made in the course of next week." Let the speculation continue!"