Sauber Undecided on Verstappen Test Role

Sauber have yet to decide whether to hire Jos Verstappen as a test driver, a spokeswoman for the Swiss Formula One racing team said on Monday.

The team's press officer Agnes Carlier said the Dutchman had visited the team's headquarters in Hinwil for talks but team leader Peter Sauber had not made up his mind whether to take him on.

Verstappen was dismissed in mid-contract by rivals Arrows earlier this month and is currently considering legal action for compensation.

"Verstappen has been around to see us and to fit the car," Carlier said by telephone from Australia, after the team arrived for the Melbourne Grand Prix. "He is twice as big as our drivers so we needed to see whether he could drive our car without too many modifications.

"On the one hand, our technical people say that the drivers (Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa) are too tired by racing to also do test drives and that it may be an advantage to have a test driver," she said. "But as Mr Sauber likes to say - we only have one car to test and we are not a large team."

The Australian Grand Prix on March 3rd marks the start of the 2002 Formula One season and will see the official debut of Sauber's 20-year-old Brazilian driver Massa.

German Heidfeld, 24, and Finn Kimi Raikkonen drove Sauber to fourth place in the constructors' race in 2001, the Swiss team's best ever showing.

The team has been testing their new Petronas C21 car in Barcelona and Valencia in Spain and recently at the Mugello track in Italy, where both cars were damaged and needed repairs at Hinwil before leaving for Australia.

"Everybody damages a car sometimes, that's part of the routine in Formula One," Carlier said.