Briatore keeps Renault waiting on contract

The flamboyant Italian confirmed on Saturday that he had a new deal waiting for his signature but said it could be months before he puts pen to paper, if at all.

"It's true. I don't know yet. It's too early," he told Reuters at the Spanish Grand Prix, a home race for Renault's World Champion Fernando Alonso.

"For the moment I don't think my contract is the priority, the priority is to make sure the team is competitive, make sure we are winning," he added.

"This is my job now. The future I don't think it is the moment to be talking."

Asked when the right time might be, Briatore added: "I think after July, August. I am talking every day but I need to be talking with myself first."

Alonso has already announced he is leaving Renault at the end of the year for rivals McLaren.

The French manufacturer's long-term future in Formula One has also been called into question, with the major carmakers in the sport yet to agree a new commercial deal with Bernie Ecclestone beyond the end of 2007.

Briatore, a regular in glossy celebrity magazines on account of his playboy lifestyle, is regarded as one of the shrewdest business brains in the paddock but has hinted in the past that he could walk away.

"I've been doing this job for a long time but at the moment I feel it is my last challenge in Formula One. The moment I leave Renault, I leave Formula One. This is quite clear," he declared a year ago when he renewed his contract for 2006.

He has twice masterminded teams to the constructors' championship, Benetton with Michael Schumacher in 1995 and Renault last year.

Renault's new Formula One team president Alain Dassas said last month that the Italian was a key part of their plans for the future.

"For 2007, we must put a number of key factors in place," he said. "Firstly, our driver line-up and finding a replacement for Fernando Alonso. Secondly, the renewal of Flavio Briatore's contract.

"This is a key factor, and we will do everything to ensure Flavio stays," he added.