Grapevine: Da Matta Still Thinking About F1

Brazilian Cristiano Da Matta says he is still undecided between racing in America and moving to Formula One next season after winning the CART title at the weekend.

"I still don't have an answer," the 29-year-old told a news conference after winning the Grand Prix Americas in Miami at the weekend, his seventh victory of the season, and securing the championship with three races remaining.

"I still am not decided. Nothing is decided yet. I know there are a lot of rumours that something is decided but it's not."

Da Matta has been repeatedly linked to Toyota, who also provide engines to the Brazilian's Newman/Haas CART team, as the favoured candidate to partner Frenchman Olivier Panis in Formula One next year. Toyota have already told current drivers Allan McNish of Britain and Finland's Mika Salo that they will not be kept on.

"I cannot deny I'm not talking to Formula One," said the Brazilian, who beat compatriot and teammate Christian Fittipaldi in Sunday's street race. "I have a deadline and I am still waiting to see what CART is going to be next year."

Da Matta said his strong relationship with team owner Carl Haas made it a tough call to make.

"It's a pretty big move to change a career like this," he declared. "I know it's a pretty big opportunity on the other side too. It's still depending on me to decide that a little bit, Carl, still depending on Toyota too. It depends a little bit on three parts.

"Everybody expects to hear something this coming week, but you won't."

The Formula One season ends this weekend in Japan at Suzuka and debutants Toyota had been expected to use their first home Grand Prix to make their final driver announcement.

Other candidates, such as young Brazilians Antonio Pizzonia and Felipe Massa, could also be in the picture with team boss Ove Andersson saying recently that his ideal candidate would be a 'young gun' aged 21 or 22.

Da Matta also explained how his thinking had changed since he arrived in America with Formula One still his main objective.

"In motor sports, you have to dance according to the music," he said. "I wanted to dance samba, but they ended up playing jazz. I had to come to jazz. It wasn't the move I wanted to do at the time because I had offers from the biggest and most competitive Formula 3000 teams.

"Quickly I started to collect results. I started, right away before the series started, to take this Formula One thing out of my head."