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Such is the fascination of these things that Jenson Button's troubled future has been more of a talking point here in the scorched wasteland of Magny-Cours than yet another gripping battle for pole position between Juan Pablo Montoya and Michael Schumacher.
On their home ground, Renault chose to make public the expected news that Button will indeed be replaced for 2003 by Spanish test driver Fernando Alonso. But in a bad-tempered and defensive press conference (which Alonso was not allowed to attend) what Renault did not elect to explain to anyone's satisfaction was why the substitution is being made. So far Button has scored more than twice the number of World Championship points of his vaunted team-mate Jarno Trulli, and has more often than not outraced him - at times at Silverstone recently he was two-and-a-half seconds a lap faster in greasy conditions - and to Renault's embarrassment he outqualified Trulli yesterday as they shared the fourth row of the grid in the wake of the BMW Williamses, Ferraris and McLaren-Mercedes.
Renault chief Patrick Faure stressed that it was a difficult decision, and bypassed the question of the morality of the team principal Flavio Briatore having management contracts with both Trulli and Alonso by saying: "There are only Renault driver contracts, not Briatore contracts. We did not buy the contracts from Flavio, he brought them to the team." Coincidentally, Briatore's own deal to manage the team has been extended from 2003 to 2005.
Besides Button's evident speed, his youth and cheerful countenance are a marked contrast to Alonso's dour shyness...