Contrary to what the inhabitants of 'Planet Paddock' might think, Formula One is a sport, and therefore remains low on the totem pole of global issues.

This year, in particular, Monday morning news programmes have often failed to mention the result of the previous day's Grand Prix, a sad indictment of how boring and uninteresting many of those in the real world now find F1 to be.

While the rest of us attempt to obtain every last fact, rumour and wild guess about twenty men and their employers, the outside world has slightly more important issues to deal with, little things such as famine, terrorism, poverty and war.

Hard to believe I know, but outside 'Planet Paddock' there is a real world, a world where there are more important issues than lap times, brake ducts and intermediate tyres.

Nonetheless, in the last twenty-four hours there has been a media frenzy regarding events taking place, or indeed rumoured to be taking place, at Renault F1.

At the end of the Italian GP weekend, following another dismal race for Jarno Trulli, a story claiming that the Italian was about to be dumped emerged. Shortly afterwards it was claimed that Jacques Villeneuve was being lined up as the Italian's replacement.

First thing on Monday morning, Pitpass contacted Renault and asked for confirmation or denial of the rumour. "The rumours are pure speculation" was the response, "and the team denies them absolutely."

Although this may sound old-fashioned, at Pitpass we still believe in a little thing called integrity. It would have been easy to jump on the bandwagon and spout the same nonsense as many of our rivals. However, as ever, we wanted the truth.

Although it was clear that the relationship between Trulli and Renault was at an end, we had no evidence linking the 1997 world champion with the French outfit. Throughout the year, there have been countless rumours regarding the Canadian, endless talk of secret tests and private negotiations.

Not merely as journalists, but out of respect for Jacques and his vast 'army' of fans, we wanted the truth, we didn't want to see hopes built up and then cruelly dashed. Again.

The French outfit continued to deny that there was any substance to the building speculation. A follow up comment said: "Testing this week will proceed as planned, with Montagny and Alonso at Silverstone testing performance developments for the final three races. And as for the rumours, you have our position on that one already."

Despite the denials, the rumours not only grew, they built in intensity, there was talk of seat fittings at Enstone. Our question as to whether the rumour was "b******s" was met with the response "complete".

Now it turns out that the rumours were 100% correct, Trulli is gone and Jacques will indeed drive the R24 at Silverstone today.

Despite our best efforts, we cannot guarantee to get it 100% correct, 100% of the time. But we'll do our level best. If we are to be taken seriously, and not make fools of ourselves or our readers we have to deal in facts.

If we cannot trust an F1 team to give us facts then we are in a very sad situation.