OCTOBER 18, 2000

Badoer wants to race but only for a top team

FERRARI test driver Luca Badoer has said that he wants to return to competitive racing but admitted that he would only consider a move to a front-of-the-grid team.

The Italian, a test driver with the Maranello-based team for three years, doubled his duties last year when driving for Minardi but he has said that he will never drive for a backmarker again despite his hunger to return to the grid.

"Last year I was Ferrari's test driver and raced for Minardi, but in the end it meant nothing to me," Badoer said. "Maybe it would have been better just to have been Ferrari test driver last year as well.

"I would only stop testing if I could race a competitive car or a medium car, but not a car that would be a backmarker."

Badoer, 29, wants to follow Frenchman Olivier Panis, who will link up with BAR next year after testing with McLaren, in securing a full drive in Formula One.

"It's a different situation, but it could be possible that the same thing happens to me," he added. "I miss racing but as I said, I would only come back with a medium or good car.

"I have only driven bad cars in my time in Formula One. I have so much experience of this that really I don't want to do it again.

"It's always nice to drive and always nice to race and sometimes you do that even if it's not a competitive car, but now, really that's over for me."