Gascoyne: Driver Choice was Tough Decision

After four years with the Benetton team, Giancarlo Fisichella will swap places with fellow Italian Jarno Trulli, currently at Jordan, for next season. However, Benetton technical director Mike Gascoyne admitted at Indianapolis that he would be sad to see Fisichella leave.

"From a personal point of view I am disappointed to lose someone who has done such a tremendous job for us and driven the car so quickly - he is a lovely little guy," Gascoyne told Atlas F1 at Indianapolis.

"There has been criticism in the past about his application, but this year he has produced some fantastic drives - not just like Spa, where he scored points, but sometimes when he has driven brilliantly for no glory and helped carry the team. So in some respects he deserves more, but this is a hard-bitten world and you have to make decisions for the future."

Whilst Gascoyne is sad to lose a driver with whom he has built up a strong working relationship, he is also looking forward to working with Trulli, whom he describes as being a nice guy and driver who is also very determined as well as being amazingly quick.

"If you look at Jarno," he says, "he has places where he can improve, but if you look at qualifying, he is consistently - Michael Schumacher apart - the quickest guy out there. You just have to look at how he has blown away his teammates this year, and quick guys too, by a lot.

"Some people criticize Jarno for going backwards in races, but I think he probably qualifies cars in places where they just shouldn't be, because he is unbelievably quick.

"So we had to make a decision. With Jenson Button under contract we had to choose between Giancarlo and Jarno, and really in that situation there can't be a right decision, but nevertheless we had to make one; hopefully it is the right one."