Grapevine: Sauber Interested in Rising Star Jani

Sauber are planning to sign Swiss-Indian driver Neel Jani on a long-term contract after both McLaren and Williams expressed an interest in the teenager.

Jani, 19, whose father is Indian and mother is Swiss, competed in Formula Renault EuroCup last year and interested a host of admirers, but Sauber have jumped to the head of the queue for his signature.

"We are supporting Jani's current career in Formula Renault, but don't want to push him into F1 because we don't want to burn him out," team boss Peter Sauber told Swiss newspaper Blick.

Sauber signed Finn Kimi Raikkonen, now a McLaren driver, from Formula Renault after only 23 single seater races, and the Swiss squad again signed a rising star when they hired Brazilian Felipe Massa at the start of 2002.

Jani won the final race of the season in the Formula Renault championship at Estoril three weeks ago, and only missed out on the championship title by four points.

He revealed McLaren and Williams have shown an interest: "Both teams have spoken to me and have urged me to send them my race reports after each event."