JANUARY 26, 2004

Swedes report that Wirdheim will be at Jaguar

There are reports in Sweden's Expressen (www.expressen.se) magazine that Bjorn Wirdheim has landed the deal to be Jaguar's test driver in 2004, fighting off a bid for the job from America's Townsend Bell and from British Formula 3 Champion Alan Van der Merwe from South Africa. The magazine however may not be correct as it is also predicting that Nelson Piquet Jr. will be the second test driver at Williams when in fact that job is going to go to Antonio Pizzonia. It is thought that Piquet and Nico Rosberg may end up with longer-term option deals with Williams but the team needs more experienced drivers for the day-to-day work this year and Pizzonia did a good job for the team in 2002 and is keen to rebuild his F1 career after the disasters at Jaguar Racing last year.

Wirdheim's career is being overseen by Arden International's Christian Horner.