Renault test and development driver Franck Montagny, who put in a significant amount of mileage helping the French based team develop a world championship winning contender in 2005, has already revealed that he will no longer be testing for the Frenchy based squad in the future.

However, he did admit to us in an exclusive interview recently, that there is still a chance things may change and he will remain with his national team after all….

“I don’t really know,” he said when asked if he was really leaving. “They told me that they will no longer need my services next year because I was to be replaced with an RDD driver for the sake of continuity in the Renault team. Everyone has known about this within the team for a while now, but it could change after all.”

Word in the paddock is that team boss Flavio Briatore is looking to put the man rumoured to take Franck’s place, RDD driver Heikki Kovalainen with the BMW team for the 2006 season in order to give him a years worth of experience in F1 competition. However, BMW are not that keen on training up a rookie driver, only to hand him back to Briatore just as he starts coming into his own.

However, this is not helping Frank any, as he is still without a full time drive for the 2006 season. So, in that case, would a third driver role be something he would consider? Maybe….maybe not.

“It all depends, we’ll have to see how things develop, especially in terms of test drivers: number of test days, mileage possible, etc… But if you want my opinion, to get involved in F1 competition the best thing is to keep your hand in F1.”

For more of Franck’s exclusive interview, keep an eye on our features section.