Salo staying at Tyrrell

FINNISH driver Mika Salo is to stay with Tyrrell in 1996; that probably means that the team will also soon announce that it is to continue with its sponsorship from the Nokia mobile phone company, which also comes from Finland.

Salo has not been able to achieve much this year with the Tyrrell, but he has outpaced Ukyo Katayama and his name was being mentioned as a possible number two Ferrari driver to Michael Schumacher.

Salo, who scored his first World Championship points at Monza a week ago, has wisely decided to stay where he is and learn more about F1 before jumping into a top team.

Tyrrell hopes to re-sign Katayama shortly. He has important links with Japan Tobacco (Mild Seven) and with Yamaha which supplies Tyrrell with its V10 engine. A brand new Yamaha V10 engine is currently being tested at Engine Developments in Rugby, England, and Tyrrell designers are already well-advanced on a new car for next year.

Privately, team members admit that this year has been a disaster for Tyrrell and that performances will be much-improved next year.