Pizzonia Hopeful of Williams Test Seat

Antonio Pizzonia is hopeful of beating Ricardo Sperafico to the second seat on Williams' test team, and believes an announcement will be made in the next few days.

Former Formula Three champion Pizzonia won one race for the Petrobras Junior team when he moved to F3000 this year, and after originally being linked with Benetton he could be on his way to the Grove-based team instead.

"We will probably know what is going on in the next few days," revealed Pizzonia. "But we still do not have a deal. It is between him (Sperafico) and me.

"We have both tested, and that went well for me. The engineers there are very good. I have been speaking with the team for probably two months, but I am not sure yet."

Pizzonia is hoping to continue racing in the F3000 championship with the Petrobras team and mix that with the testing job at Williams. But he admitted the F3000 deal is also yet to be finalised, so the next few days will be critical for the future of his career.

"That is what I am trying to do, to get a test driver deal and a Formula 3000 race deal with the same team I am with now," he said. "But I have not signed anything there yet either because of sponsor problems. I am not sure if Pepsi are going to stay for next year, and there are others we are in discussion with as well."

Pizzonia and Sperafico both had two tests for Williams towards the end of this season as the Grove-based outfit, which like most teams next year will run two dedicated test teams, compared the pair for the vacant seat.