MARCH 30, 2007

Van der Garde stuck in no man's land

Giedo Van der Garde may come to regret his decision to walk out on Super Aguri F1 and sign a deal to test for the Spyker team. The problem is that Super Aguri has a valid contract lodged with the Contract Recognition Board and this will remain valid until a settlement can be found.

Giedo Van der Garde may come to regret his decision to walk out on Super Aguri F1 and sign a deal to test for the Spyker team. The problem is that Super Aguri has a valid contract lodged with the Contract Recognition Board and this will remain valid until a settlement can be found. The chances of that happening are virtually nil at the moment as Spyker has launched an arbitration claim against Super Aguri and there is no incentive for the Japanese team to do anything other than block Van der Garde's superlicence and that means that the Dutchman cannot take part in any official F1 sessions.

This is good news for Christijan Albers who must be feeling a little exposed given that Van der Garde has considerable financial backing from Dutch millionaire Marcel Boekhoorn. Albers is not very happy with the team at the moment as the cars is not very good and it will be some months before Mike Gascoyne's influence will be felt.