Alexander Wurz:

Wurz's height and weight have always created compromises, and Benetton understands that, but the signs are that his tenure with the team is coming to an end. He urgently needs some good results in order to improve his chances of landing a drive for next season. The Austrian's backing from the D2 phone company may ease his passage into another team - but only one which does not already have a communications partner. BAR and Sauber seem to be possible options, and his nationality will do him no harm at the latter, since Red Bull also hails from Austria and Peter Sauber has always had a soft spot for German-speaking drivers.

Alas his French GP ended in the gravel trap after a move on Jean Alesi's Prost went wrong, so the pressure is still very much on as Wurz heads to his home GP at the A1-Ring. Adam Cooper spoke to him about the season so far.



"I was fighting with Alesi. I tried to outbrake him, and was a bit too fast. I had big problems with the brakes locking all the time, so I went straight on. I touched a few people in this race! When I tried to overtake them it was so close, but I was always a little bit too late to pass them."



"Our car was very difficult here, really bad. Especially on the first set of tyres. It was unbelievable, how bad it was to drive. The second set was better, so I could push more, but then was held up by the Prosts."



"Definitely, the good luck he had I've had in bad luck! Which is OK for him. I am happy for Giancarlo, because he really does the job. But I've had bad luck with technical stuff, and sometimes I've made mistakes, like Silverstone qualifying. So it's been pretty frustrating so far."



"I don't know. Maybe no one looks to this, but Imola qualifying was a really good lap, and also here qualifying was the maximum I can do with my car. I was less than 0.1s slower than Giancarlo."



"I don't know what the story is, but I know the speculations, I know the background, so I'm laughing a lot. It's the usual story each year. Personally, what is a fact is that Benetton has an option on me, and they have to take it in mid-August. Before this I'm not going to say anything."



"Of course I'm looking around, as I did each year. Even if I had a contract already like last year or three years ago, I was still looking around to get information about what's going on."



"It depends how quickly they can change a few things. It's not easy, but maybe they will have a good direction."



"Yes. As you said nothing has happened yet. Flavio is trying to do things in the background, which I'm sure he's, pushing very hard for. That's his main work at the moment, to prepare everything for the next few years. And then he just has to make a good team and hopes the team stick together, and there's no fighting within the team, because politics in the team uses so much energy, and then you have no performance on the circuit. He needs to sort out these things, but he knows it because he won the championship already."