Grapevine: Renault Rubbish Rumours of Replacing Trulli

The Renault Formula One team have shot down rumours that they have plans to replace Italian Jarno Trulli in the remaining part of the season.

Rumours in several websites suggested today that Canadian Jacques Villeneuve is set to replace Trulli after the Renault driver underperformed at the Italian Grand Prix last Sunday.

Trulli, who will leave the French squad at the end of the year, suggested recently the team were trying to undermine him, a claim Renault boss Flavio Briatore denied over the weekend.

"In seven years I have never had a teammate outqualify me here," Trulli said after being outqualified by his teammate Fernando Alonso by almost half a second on Saturday. "Fernando? I know that he is supposed to be in front of me at the moment and here we had yet another demonstration. He is the Renault driver now."

Trulli, winner of the Monaco Grand Prix this year, has failed to score any points in the last five races, and he finished in a disappointing tenth place at Monza on Sunday.

The poor streak of results has sparked rumours that Trulli could miss the final three races of the season, with reports suggesting 1997 World Champion could make a return to Formula One action this week at the Jerez circuit.

The rumours, however, have been denied by Renault, who will not even be testing at the Spanish circuit.

"The reports currently flying around the internet are pure speculation, and we strongly deny that any replacement will take place," a Renault spokesman told Atlas F1 today.

"As an aside, the fact that such reports mention Villeneuve possibly testing at Jerez, when the team is in fact running at Silverstone, is a good indication of the level of factual content they contain.

"We will test, as planned, with Alonso and [Franck] Montagny at Silverstone, evaluating further performance developments prior to the final flyaway races of the year."