Sebastien Loeb may have won the World Rally Championship, and Alexandre Premat and Nicolas Lapierre are dominating the inaugural A1 GP Championship, however, it is unlikely that France will be represented in Formula One next season, other than by Renault, which won the 2005 World Championship.

Frenchman, Sebastien Bourdais, winner of back-to-back ChampCar titles, is not happy: "I don't expect anything from Renault," he told L'Equipe. "They have done enough bad-mouthing about me.

"Patrick Faure's provocative comments on French drivers show they are looking for a reason to justify their policy not to recruit a French driver," he added. "I don't know the real reasons and, in the end, I don't really care.

"That's the most frustrating thing," the Frenchman continued. "They won in F1 this year and, sincerely, I say 'Bravo'. I also win and they should also say 'Bravo', even if they are not interested in working with me."

Referring to his chances of getting into F1, having signed a new deal which will keep him in ChampCars until 2007, he said: "I'll be 28. And you don't break into F1 when you're 30."

However, he admitted that he had preliminary talks with several teams, including BMW: "For a while I was pretty optimistic but there was a problem with Villeneuve's contract."