MARCH 13, 1995

More dithering at Tyrrell

The Tyrrell team has still not decided whether to hire Finn Mika Salo or Portuguese driver Pedro Lamy.

The Tyrrell team has still not decided whether to hire Finn Mika Salo or Portuguese driver Pedro Lamy. Both drivers tested one of the team's new 023 chassis at Estoril last week - the team will have three cars ready for the Brazilian GP - and our sources within the team suggest that Salo was much more impressive, recording a best lap of 1m23.10s, while Lamy could manage only a 1m24.06s lap.

If the team had a full budget, there is little doubt that Salo would have been signed up some weeks ago; but the Finn hasn't got enough money to guarantee himself the drive and the team has to decide if it is worth hiring him and hoping that his performances will help the team get more sponsorship later in the year, or taking the safer route of signing Lamy, who has money ready to deliver.

F1 pundits reckon that whoever gets the ride will be getting a big career break as the Tyrrell looks like being a dark horse for success this year. The team has done 2000kms of testing with the new car without any major dramas, and 5000kms of testing has gone into the new Hydrolink suspension system. After being quick but failing a lot last year, Tyrrell has concentrated this winter on reliability and has even appointed engineer Nigel Beresford to be responsible for ensuring maximum reliability.