The Emperor

"Flavio is looking after things"

Mark Webber looks set to replace World Champion Fernando Alonso at Renault next season following confirmation that the Australian is to leave Williams at the end of this year.

The Williams team did not take up their option on Webber, which expired last Monday, and so lost their opportunity to hold onto him for two more years.

Alonso has signed already for McLaren Mercedes-Benz for next year. Williams this week confirmed that their 2007 line-up will be Nico Rosberg and Alexander Wurz.

By one of those extraordinary arrangements that are allowed to exist in Formula One, Webber is managed by rival team chief Flavio Briatore of Renault, who has guided his career.

Webber hinted that money was the reason their talks with Williams broke down.

"Williams had a choice to take an option up which was for a further two years," he added. "They were not in a position to do that. We agreed to try and make it work even if they could not come to an agreement with the original terms in place and we tried to work a new deal from there.”

"But, in the end, Flavio said 'okay, we go on the market' and we went from there.
"

Speaking at a news conference ahead of Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, Webber said he felt relaxed at his situation, adding that he had everything under control and suggested he had good options elsewhere - notably at Renault.

"Everything is under control," said Webber. "Flavio is looking after things at the moment. We have a few plates spinning out there and we will see where they come down.”

"It would be very silly to walk away from Williams and not have anything. I thought they were going to announce Alex (Wurz) in Hockenheim because we could not come to an agreement. As we all know in this game, things can change quite quickly and things will change in the next few days to be honest."

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bmwownage

I thought Fisichella said he'll have a Finn team mate..

Mikael

Briatore said in an interview for the the Gazzetta dello Sport that they will choose a driver that has driven over 20000 test kilometres and has thus proved being able to be strong in Formula 1. That description matches with Kovalainen.