SEPTEMBER 4, 2000

Alonso and Minardi

THE Minardi team would like to run Spaniard Fernando Alonso next season alongside his fellow countryman Marc Gene but the decision will be dependent on sponsorship. At the moment the team's major sponsor Telefonica wants a SouthÊAmerican in the team and so Minardi is running Gaston Mazzacane.

The future of Minardi remains in a state of flux as negotiations continue for the purchase of a majority shareholding in the team. These talks have been going on for months but the pressure for a decision is growing as the team needs to know that it has a big enough budget to use Supertec V10 engines next year rather than the current Fords. The team has agreement in principle for such a deal but now needs to find the money to fund the program.

Without the French engines, the team is not very attractive to Alonso who will be better off racing in Formula 3000 next year with the Astromega team. That way he may be picked up by a Formula 1 team higher up the grid than Minardi.

Alonso's manager, former Minardi F1 driver Adrian Campos, says that a Minardi-Supertec deal would be "perfect" for Alonso.

Minardi last week vehemently denied that it is holding any talks with a South African named Riccardo Ferrari about purchasing the team, a story which had been reported heavily in the Italian press.