Wurz in a tight spot

amid reports that he does not fit Adrian Newey's latest chassis.
Wurz has admitted that when he first tried a mock-up model of the MP4/20 for
size a month ago he realised he wouldn't be able to fit in the cockpit. The
lanky Austrian initially faced a similar problem with the MP4/19A last
November, and was unable to resume his normal testing duties until a new
batch of chassis became available in January.

"What happened last year was a mistake in the construction of the first few
cars and then it was all corrected in time for me to test for two months
before the start of the season," explained Wurz. "This time the smaller
cockpit is what the project said, and even though I can fit in the cockpit
and drive the car - as far as I could tell from trying the model in the
factory - there's no way I'll be able to do any longer runs or get a proper
feel for the car, so cramped am I inside the cockpit.

"What I need to be done in order to be able to fit properly in the car and
be able to test in a proper way is not a lot but requires some work from the
team. I already know I won't fit in the first few cars that will be made,
but I can continue testing with the MP4/19B.

"I hope as soon as the team starts making more chassis, for the test team,
they'll be able to build them with more space in the cockpit so that I can
have the possibility to work on the development of the MP4/20. But at the
moment it's not certain that will be the case."

Wurz's cockpit difficulties are particularly untimely as Mika Hakkinen's
name has been thrown into the ring as a possible McLaren test driver in
2005. The Finn, who won back-to-back world titles with the Woking team in
1998-99, has already signed a contract with Mercedes-Benz to race in the DTM
next year, but the schedule would not preclude him carrying out a limited
programme of F1 testing.