AUGUST 3, 2002
Da Matta and Toyota
Da Matta has done a very good job in CART, winning seven of the last 12 races in his Chevron-sponsored Newman-Haas Lola-Toyota, but he does not know Formula 1 and will bring added publicity to the team without necessarily bringing better results. This is not what the team needs. Having said that, there is a school of thought in F1 circles that neither Mika Salo nor Allan McNish is at a level to fully take advantage of the technical package available to them. However, as the team is in the process of designing a new car and a new engine for next year it might be wiser to keep the same drivers.