Paris Match is one of the most prestigious publications in France, and are keen to run an interview, I'm told, with France's next Formula One superstar. They want to do a piece on GP2 driver and Renault's third driver Romain Grosjean, but the request for an interview has been turned down. Why would this be? This is great exposure for Grosjean, GP2 and Renault.

As always, I suspect there is more to this than just a missed opportunity. My initial thought was that Grosjean may, therefore, be on his way out. But Renault love him. So why then? Could it be that Renault intend to pull out of F1 this year? I'm adding two and two and making five, but I think it's fair to say there would be some PR embarrassment if Renault hailed it's new French saviour only to pull the project and leave the poor lad racing in the Andros series.

Carlos Ghosn, the company's president, has little emotional attachment to F1 and has stated over and over again that the manufacturer will only remain in F1 as long as there is a quantifiable return on its investment.

There's no doubt that Renault - like every other car manufacturer - has seen it's profits axed as the car market grinds to a halt at the side of the road. F1 is a very public way of spending a lot of money at a time when shareholders demand a tightening of the corporate belt.

Renault have a disappointing car and while they could develop it into a race winner, as they did last year, it's also widely tipped that Fernando Alonso is off to Ferrari next year. Which brings me to another rumour...

I'm told by a third party that Mark Webber has tried to convince Kimi Raikkonen to join the GPDA. Kimi is now the only driver who isn't a member. When asked why, Kimi apparently said there is no point, because he won't be around next year.

That would leave the door open for Alonso. Felipe Massa should be safe because talk of Robert Kubica going to Ferrari has died down. Kubica is not getting on very well with his team BMW Sauber, but I'm told his focus is on Barrichello's seat at Brawn for next year. So watch this space - for a man who was tipped for the title this year only to score zero points from the first three races, Bobby K has been looking surprisingly happy with himself of late.

Source: http://formulaoneblog.metro.co.uk/2009/04/rumour-mill.html