FEBRUARY 1, 2005

More on the Heidfeld deal

The deal between Nick Heidfeld and Williams was obviously influenced quite heavily by the team's engine supplier BMW although the Williams team prides itself on never being influenced by its sponsors and partners. In this case, however, it seems as though the team has decided not to irritate the Munich company by picking Antonio Pizzonia. The interesting thing is that there are widespread reports that the deal is on a race-by-race basis and that this could mean that Antonio Pizzonia will get the drive if Heidfeld does not deliver the goods. This sounds very unlikely. It will be interesting to see whether or not Pizzonia now decides to stay with Williams. He may conclude that he needs to go racing and try to deal with Jordan or he may even head for the United States of America, However Williams does need a strong third driver and so the team may decide to offer Antonio a much healthier salary to induce him to stay.