Williams denies Jacques test

Williams's spokesman said: "Certainly Jacques is not at Paul Ricard at our invitation, and to deny circulating rumours, he is not being seat-fitted at the track for us this week, or indeed testing for us in France."

The 1997 World Champion has recently been linked with a return to the team with which he clinched the title, and Villeneuve is the popular choice of Autosport.com voters to take the place of Juan Pablo Montoya in the team in 2005, according to our recent poll. Villeneuve gained 57.27% of the vote with Mark Webber the next most popular of six candidates with a mere 15.66%.

Williams's spokesman went on to give some insight into the team's current thinking on drivers.

"In respect of our driver selections for 2005 and beyond," he said, "the team's immediate priority is to improve the performance of the FW26 as this will be the biggest single incentive to securing a competitive driver line up for next season and beyond.

"As regards specific candidates, we are actively considering a wide range of potential candidates as would be reasonably expected, and to this end, we have had discussions with many drivers whose names have been the subject of recent press speculation. However, given that many initial discussions are intended to establish mutual interest and the contractual status of possible candidates, a discussion does not mean necessarily that a driver is under active consideration for any number of reasons."

Williams is testing at Paul Ricard for four days from today, with Marc Gene, Antonio Pizzonia and Juan Pablo Montoya scheduled to share driving duties.