In what was hardly a ringing endorsement of Formula One, the top man at the Renault car company deferred a decision yesterday on the French manufacturer’s future in the sport.

Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive officer of Renault, said that a decision on whether the team will continue will be made within a few weeks. “You will have to be patient,” Ghosn said. “We will announce our strategy in terms of Renault’s role in Formula One before the year’s end.”

His remarks came a day after a Renault board meeting in Paris at which the question of whether to continue is believed to have been discussed. This came hours after Toyota stunned their 650-strong workforce at the team headquarters in Cologne, Germany, by announcing an immediate withdrawal from the sport because of the economic downturn.

With Toyota, Honda and BMW having departed, the French company is the only mass-market manufacturer left in Formula One. Some informed observers in the French capital were suggesting that the team may continue to compete next year, but that Renault would announce an intention to sell their squad at the end of 2010.

This analysis would seem to fit with remarks by Jean-François Caubet, the company’s Formula One managing director, who said on Wednesday that the team are committed to next season, when their driver pairing will be led by Robert Kubica. “We have contracted our drivers, had our budget approved and are enrolled in the world championship,” Caubet said. “The 2010 season has begun already.”

In Cologne there was continuing gloom over Toyota’s sudden exit, which was announced in Tokyo on Wednesday, with the likelihood that many people will lose jobs as the company reorganises itself to focus on other areas of motor sport apart from Formula One. There have been reports that Toyota may try to sell the team as a whole, so that it could continue in Formula One, or that John Howett, the team president, might try to lead a Ross Brawn-style buyout.

However, Howett told The Times yesterday that both of these options had already been considered by senior managers in Japan. “I think it has already been discussed and rejected,” Howett said of a possible sale. “Maybe these ideas can be reopened but, at the moment, it would appear not.”

Meanwhile, senior managers at Silverstone are understood to be surprised by Bernie Ecclestone’s issue of a two-day ultimatum ending today by which they must sign a contract to host next year’s British Grand Prix.

Ecclestone was quoted as saying that if the circuit did not sign, he would cancel the race. Their puzzlement is such because they say Silverstone is waiting for Ecclestone to respond to amendments to the contract, not the other way round.