New media reports have contradicted claims French PM Francois Fillon will on Friday announce the country’s 2013 return to the formula one calendar.

Le Parisien newspaper on Thursday said Fillon’s visit to the Paul Ricard circuit on Friday is to confirm the successful end to long negotiations to revive the French grand prix.

Those negotiations were for Paul Ricard to annually alternate a race date with Belgium’s fabled Spa Francorchamps.

But the French-language RMC insists that Belgium is “not ready for the alternation”.

“If France has received a contract to organise a grand prix every other year, this is not the case for the Belgian promoters, who are still waiting for the document to send to the government of Wallonia,” the report read.

RMC said the hold-up could be because Spa is having trouble paying its sanctioning fee for this year’s race date in September.

The French magazine Sport-Auto agrees, insisting that Fillon “will not announce the return of the grand prix de France on Friday”.

“The prime minister will travel to the (Paul Ricard) circuit,” an official close to Fillon is quoted as saying by AFP news agency, but Fillon “will not announce the return of the grand prix to the calendar in 2013″.

The official, however, said Bernie Ecclestone as approved “in principle” France’s presence on the calendar every other year, beginning in 2013.

But “It (the alternation) will not necessarily be with Belgium,” the report added.

In an interview to be published by the Nice-Matin newspaper on Friday, Fillon is quoted as saying a grand prix is crucial to France.

“Bernie Ecclestone has just sent us a draft contract,” said the prime minister, “which is the result of negotiations that began several months ago.

“We now have a concrete basis for discussions,” he added.

Jun.9 (GMM)  F1 drivers could be penalised by the FIA if they behave badly on the roads, Jean Todt has suggested.

Lewis Hamilton was arrested after caught ‘hoon’ driving in Melbourne earlier this year and later charged and summoned to court.

But when asked about the incident in Turkey two weeks ago, the McLaren driver said the local authorities were “loving the publicity”.

Victorian traffic commissioner Ken Lay was unimpressed with Hamilton’s “flippant” reaction.  “The bottom line is people die on our roads because of hoon behaviour and he has set a really bad example,” he said.

Also apparently unimpressed is FIA president Todt, who was rumoured to be considering commissioning a protocols list informing drivers about respecting the unique rules and practices of each GP host nation they visit.

It has additionally been rumoured that drivers could face FIA penalties if convicted of committing traffic offenses.

“I have actually asked this question,” Todt admitted to the French newspaper Le Parisien.

“There is an incompatibility between the status of a role model champion, and a possible infringement on the road.  We are therefore trying to see whether to do something, and how.”

un.8 (GMM)  It may be “weeks” before F1′s new tyre supplier for 2011 and beyond is confirmed, Pirelli president Marco Tronchetti Provera said on Tuesday.

Despite a final recent push from Michelin, it is now expected that the Milan based company will succeed the departing Bridgestone as formula one’s sole supplier.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone left Turkey frustrated that a decision is being delayed, but the teams said they expected a solution within days.

“We need to sort this out this week because it is already very, very late for us,” said Ferrari’s Stefano Domenicali before departing Istanbul.

On Tuesday, the bulk of the F1 world is busily travelling to Canada, making it clear that yet another race weekend will be dominated by the discussions about tyres.

But in Milan, Pirelli’s Provera indicated that he is not expecting an imminent conclusion.

“The decision will be taken soon.  It’s a question of weeks, not months,” he said.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Parisien published on Tuesday, FIA president Jean Todt also indicated that the process about selecting Bridgestone’s successor still has some road to run.

“It (the FIA) will soon launch a tender, with the commercial promoter of the championship, Bernie Ecclestone,” he said.

“FOTA may suggest that it decides, but the strong man is not he who speaks the loudest,” added Todt.