Britit tietää...
29 July 2004 - [10:13]
Hakkinen too expensive for Williams, Coulthard on the cards instead?
With the official news announcing Giancarlo Fisichella coming hot on the heels of Jarno Trulli’s news at the weekend that he was leaving the French based squad, it soon became clear that the Italian racer lost out on his attempts to fight for better conditions at Renault.
While it is still not 100% clear, it is believed that Jarno will go to Toyota, despite rumours that BAR could be interested in his services. In fact, as our spies in Hockenheim explained, for BAR, this is a welcome rumour because it puts Takuma Sato under pressure after failing to show much in the last two events. There has been a lot of speculation in recent days that the Japanese driver will be let go at the end of the season but as he is a Honda contracted driver, and Honda just announced a big contract extension, it is unlikely that he will be going anywhere in the near future.
Back to Trulli, Williams also had the Monaco GP winner on their list to partner Mark Webber, but it looks as if the Italian driver will be too expensive for them. The Grove based squad is currently saving every cent in order to improve their aerodynamic department and by the end of the year staff shall be increased from 68 to 85 people.
Money is also thought to be the biggest handicap when it comes to hiring Mika Hakkinen for 2005. The Finn has now been released from McLaren in order to test, but is too expensive for Williams. Strike one….then comes Jacques Villeneuve, the Canadian driver not liked very much by the team’s sponsors and, according to rumours, not by Mark Webber either. Strike two…But, the chances of David Coulthard landing a return drive at Grove have improved as a result of the first two strikes.
However, the Scotsman needs to show further strong racing like his push in Germany to polish his image. But, on the other hand, there was a reason for his bad performance in Silverstone, where he lost 0.9 seconds on teammate Kimi Raikkonen. After the weekend McLaren found a broken front wing and seized front suspension rockers so Coulthard got a new chassis for Hockenheim and closed the gap to 0.1 seconds on Raikkonen. In the race he was forced to fight a severely damaged car so under the circumstances fourth place was a very good achievement.
More on the driver’s roundabout when it comes to hand….
No jospa Fränkiltä löytys muutama ylimääränen ege taskusta niin saatas yks laatukuljettaja lisää ykkösiin.