JANUARY 18, 2010

Fisichella on pole for Sauber drive

Giancarlo Fisichella has emerged as the front-runner to fill the vacant seat at BMW Sauber, to join Kamui Kobayashi for the 2010 season. The Ferrari contracted driver was spotted visiting the team in Hinwill last Thursday with his manager Enrico Zanarini, skipping a day of the Ferrari skiing event in Madonna di Campiglio.

Signing Fisichella would make commercial sense for Sauber, as Ferrari is keen for the team to take the Italian, and they will pay his salary as well as being willing to make a better deal on the team's engine supply. Fisichella previously drove for the Swiss team in 2004, the pair enjoying a successful season together.

There has been much speculation in recent weeks that Pedro de la Rosa being in line for the drive, but last week Jenson Button revealed at the Autosport International Show that De la Rosa will be testing for McLaren at the first test in Valencia, "I am testing on February 3. The first day is Pedro, then Lewis, and myself on the third day."

De la Rosa's continuing role in McLaren suggests that he has been unable to find the budget needed to land the seat, as he had been expected to bring Universia, which is a network of 11,000 universities in 15 countries, which offers information and content for more than 10m students and 850,000 academics. The organisation is heavily supported by the Spanish bank Santander.

Speaking to his friend Roger Benoit, who writes for daily newspaper Blick, Peter Sauber admitted the second seat was vacant and that "in the end only I will decide who takes it".

An announcement is expected next week, as Sauber will start testing on February 1st in Valencia, one day after the launch of its new car in the Spanish track.