MARCH 27, 1995

The battle of Nokia

Our spies in F1's commercial circles tell us that there was a spectacular marketing brawl between at least four teams to get their hands on sponsorship money from Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia.

The deal went in the end to Tyrrell but Pacific, Benetton and McLaren were all fighting hard to grab the Finnish money. Benetton is even said to have offered its second seat to Mika Salo in exchange for Nokia joining the team. Salo is understood to have turned down the offer because he did not think that a first season in F1 alongside Michael Schumacher would be very good for his career. This was a wise move given the damage done last year to Jos Verstappen's career as a result of his deal with Benetton.

In order to get Salo into the team, Briton Johnny Herbert would have been sacrificed, but as Herbert doesn't bring any money to Benetton he seems to be expendable.