JULY 26, 2002

Heidfeld and Sauber

Nick Heidfeld says that he expects to stay at Sauber next year. The Swiss team has an option on the German but it is likely that the option will be taken up on September 1. Heidfeld has been mentioned as a possible Toyota driver but our sources at Toyota say that there has not been any contact between the team and Heidfeld.

Heidfeld had not had too much trouble staying ahead of Felipe Massa this year as the Brazilian has not been as good a qualifier and Nick currently has six points to Massa's four.

The big question now is whether Sauber will decide to continue with the same drivers next year. There is a lot of logic in such a move as both men are very small and the car is so small that bigger drivers such as Jos Verstappen or Mark Webber would not be able to get in the car. Given the current financial situation around the world it is unlikely that the team will want to do a major redesign on the Sauber over the winter so it makes a lot of sense to keep the existing drivers. The team will have its new windtunnel ready at the end of 2003 and so one would expect a major development in the chassis department at that point.

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