Trulli's Future at Renault to be Decided in July

Italian Jarno Trulli will find out next month, in July, whether he will remain with Renault for 2005, his team principal Flavio Briatore said on Saturday.

Trulli claimed his first Grand Prix victory in Monaco and has out-qualified his highly-rated Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso in the last three races before this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix.

His contract is up for renewal at the end of the season but he believes his performances this year, which have put him fourth in the world championship, 11 points ahead of fifth-placed Alonso, should convince the team to retain him.

"We are talking to Jarno every day and we will decide on his future in July," Briatore said. "He is doing a very good job, he is a quality driver and he and Fernando make a good team."

The big-budget Toyota team is believed to have offered Trulli a three-year contract for next year and the Italian said in Canada that he "pretty much" knows where he will be next year.

The Japanese team have under-performed since their Grand Prix debut in 2002 but brought in former Renault technical director Mike Gascoyne at the end of last year in a bid to turn things around.

With one of the biggest budgets in Formula One the Germany-based outfit have financial clout to bring in big name drivers, but Briatore insisted Trulli's future will not be driven by finance.

"Money is not everything in Formula One and Jarno wants success, which we believe he can have here," said Briatore. "We have no problems but whether we keep him depends on a lot of things."

Renault are grooming several young drivers in their Driver Development Programme and their current French test driver Franck Montagny is tipped to step up to the race team if they decide to replace Trulli.

Briatore promoted Alonso from the test driver role to a race seat last year and the Spaniard, who first raced for Minardi in 2001, duly repaid him with a victory in only his second season in Formula One.