Bernie Ecclestone is leading the negotiations as France tries to return to the formula one calendar.
The country’s government is pushing hard to include Paul Ricard on the 2013 calendar, with a deal to alternate annually a single race date with Belgum’s Spa Francorchamps.

RMC Sport reports that Paris has formally requested Ecclestone, F1′s chief executive, send them the contract.

But the report said a crucial detail is missing: the necessary race fee.

As those negotiations begin, it is revealed that Eric Boullier – the Lotus team’s French team principal – met with Ecclestone in London on Wednesday to talk about it.

Boullier had tried to “speed things up”, the French language report said.

RMC added that Spa-Francorchamps’ Belgian promoters currently spend EUR 22.5 million per race on the grand prix, a figure neither they nor France are willing to pay in 2013 and beyond.

“Both have set a maximum of EUR 15 million per race,” said the report.

The responsible Belgian minister, Jean-Claude Marcourt, declined to comment.

Romain Grosjean has lauded Renault’s progress since he left the French team last year.

The Swiss born Frenchman, back in the F1 paddock this weekend for the GP2 support race, made his grand prix debut in 2009 to replace the ousted Nelson Piquet.

In the eight months since his last race with Renault, the team has emerged from the crashgate scandal and is now mostly owned by Genii Capital.

“Renault, bravo,” Grosjean, 24, told France’s Auto Hebdo.

“Compared to the situation they were in last year, nobody would have expected them to be where they are now.

“They have stepped up, bringing improvements to every race.  Even on a bad weekend, they are never very far away,” added Grosjean, appointed for his GP2 duties at Hockenheim by the Genii-controlled Gravity management arm.

He admitted he will use the opportunity this weekend to sound out any openings with F1 teams, but insisted that he does not regret agreeing to step into the sport with the troubled Renault team last season.

“No, and anyway, we didn’t have a choice.  On the day it was proposed to get into F1, ‘no’ was not an option,” he said.

“I don’t regret anything, or anything that has come afterwards,” added Grosjean.

Robert Kubica may be contractually free to leave the Renault team at the end of next year.

The French team announced on Wednesday that the Pole has extended his current deal to include the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

But although boss Eric Boullier indicated that the “multi-year deal” will stop the “many rumours” surrounding the 25-year-old’s future, speculation about Kubica’s services looks set to continue.

When Renault announced Kubica’s 2010 contract last October, the media statement said he will race for the Enstone based team “from the 2010 season onwards”.

But we reported in May that the 2010 contract included an option that would allow Kubica to leave if the team is not fourth in the constructors’ championship by July 15.

At the time of writing, Renault is currently fifth, 20 points behind Mercedes.

Finland’s Turun Sanomat reports that Kubica will be similarly free to leave Renault at the end of next season if Renault does not meet more contractual performance targets.

The report also said Kubica’s retainer will be higher in 2011, as will the jointly Genii Capital and Renault-owned team’s overall budget.

Returning to Renault in 2008 was a mistake for Fernando Alonso, according to the team’s sporting director Steve Nielsen.

At the end of his tumultuous single season with McLaren in 2007, the Spaniard broke his contract to return to the scene of his championship wins.

But while Alonso battled for the 2007 title, the same season was a difficult one for the French team, and the next two years were similarly barren for Renault until he switched again to Ferrari.

“We know what happened (at McLaren), and he came back,” Nielsen is quoted by eurosport.fr.

“I actually think it was probably a mistake — I don’t know if he agrees with me but he knows I love him,” said the Briton.

“If I had been his manager at the time, I would have told him ‘Listen, you have to stay and beat this guy (Lewis Hamilton)’.

“‘Firstly because you have the best car now, secondly because your best chance to be champion next year is to stay at McLaren’,” Nielsen added.

(GMM)

ART is not expecting a free ticket onto the 2011 grid, even though the French team’s boss is the son of FIA president Jean Todt.

Nicolas Todt, 32, responded to rumours his Burgundy-based outfit is favourite to win F1′s 13th place in formula one due to the family link to the ruling body.

“My father is anything but stupid,” Todt said in the latest edition of France’s Auto Hebdo magazine.

“For us, we need to do things even better than the best in order to not be open to criticism,” he added.

“Our dossier needs to be better than any others, because I do not expect any gifts from the FIA, quite the contrary,” said Todt.

ART already races in the formative F3 Euroseries, GP2 and GP3 categories.

Todt manages not only Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, but also the French 20-year-old Jules Bianchi, who currently races for ART’s GP2 team and is a part of Ferrari’s driver development programme.

As recently as this week, Bianchi was at the wheel of a 2008 Ferrari at Vallelunga.

Nicolas Todt admitted he would like to see ART enter formula one as a French team with a French driver at the wheel.

“That would be even more enjoyable,” he conceded.

“And even better with French technical partners as well.  France has an enormous reservoir of human talent and enterprise at a very high level.

“There is certainly enough to show the English what we are capable of,” added Todt.

(GMM)