Morbidelli in the frame for Minardi seat

New European Minardi F1 boss Paul Stoddart has yet to announce a partner for young Fernando Alonso at the Anglo-Italian team and Morbidelli, who competed in 67 Grands Prix during the Nineties, would appear to be in the frame for a return to the world's top echelon of motor racing.

"He's on our list but we're certainly not making any decisions yet," Stoddart exclusively told Autosport.com. "I've looked at him quite closely and I'm convinced his fitness is OK [Morbidelli badly broke his arm testing for Sauber at Magny-Cours in 1997] and that was the only real thing that was in question. He's certainly on our list."

Stoddart has narrowed the group of contenders from which he will choose down to five, and the Australian has already said that he wants to ally Alonso's youth with a more experienced team mate.

"We have to make a very sensible decision as to who gets the second seat and obviously we've got options," said Stoddart. "We can either go for a young charger, or we can go with the stability of putting somebody in like Gianni [Morbidelli] who has got all that experience. The two of them together would probably be a sensible partnership."

Morbidelli has already signed a deal to lead a BMW attack on the European Touring Car Championship with the Italian works Super Production squad CiBiEmme, but the 33-year-old is believed to be keen on a return to F1. The Italian has already competed in two seasons with Minardi in 1991-92 and scored a best result of third in the Australian Grand Prix in 1995 with Footwork.

European Minardi has yet to complete its 2001 challenger, but the team, which is currently run between Faenza in Italy and European's Herefordshire factory, is scheduled to shakedown two new cars in approximately 10 days time in Italy.

Stoddart said: "We have a shakedown planned and we definitely want to put the driver we're going to have in the car for that shakedown. So we'll probably have made a decision by then."

The season kicks off in just three weeks' time and Formula 1's minnow is the only team yet to unveil its new car and full driver-line up.