RNG the Third!Jos Verstappen, out of F1 last year testing for Honda, has only one offer. He becomes
Arrows first driver.
Sebastien Bourdais also found himself the unlikely recipient of a testing offer:
- 1-80: Takes up a testing role with BAR.
- 81-100: Chooses not to be distracted from his rookie year in F3000.
27 - Bourdais becomes
BAR reserve at the bargain cost of 1.0.
Yuji Ide has also been plucked from mediocrity with the offer of a Minardi testing role.
- 1-70: Will test for Minardi
- 71-100: Will remain in Japanese Formula 3, where he has yet to score a single point.
6 - From absolutely nowhere, Ide becomes the
reserve driver at Faenza.
Originally, his responses were in Japanese, but that broke our fragile forum software.David Coulthard also seems quite popular, with offers from three British-based teams:
- 1-60: Remains with McLaren as second driver.
- 60-90: Takes the offer to lead the Benetton team.
- 91-100: The proud Scotsman waits to see if an offer will come through from Stewart.
75 -
Benetton snag an unlikely scalp in a new
team leader.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen is in two minds with the offers in his in-tray;
- 1-50: Remains with Jordan after a phenomenal 1999, but with a huge pay cut and Villeneuve as his new team-mate.
- 51-100: Chooses to cut and run, joining Stewart as their well-paid team leader.
98 - There was no doubt in the mind of the new
Stewart leader.
Mika Salo, so impressive at Ferrari last year, has earned himself two offers:
- 1-70: Joins Frentzen at Stewart.
- 71-100: Leads the Minardi team.
11 - It was never in doubt.
This means that
Olivier Panis will
lead Minardi.
Eddie Irvine has only one offer, despite being the runner-up in last year's Championship:
- 1-60: Accepts a huge pay cut to drive for Jordan this year.
- 61-100: Decides he can become a richer man elsewhere.
66 - Amazingly, last year's runner-up is without an F1 seat at present.
Giancarlo Fisichella has two offers:
- 1-30: Accepts a pay cut to return to drive for Jordan.
- 31-100: Remains at Benetton, on full pay.
34 - Again, Jordan's lack of funds count against them as Fisi
remains at Benetton.
Pedro de la Rosa and his Repsol chequebook are also in demand:
- 1-60: Takes his money to a very reputable team in Williams.
- 60-90: Continues his stint with Arrows.
- 91-100: Waits on the details of a possible Minardi offer.
3 - de la Rosa will
race for Williams.
Jenson Button has three offers:
- 1-40: Takes a race seat at Arrows.
- 41-90: Becomes the new Damon Hill at Jordan.
- 91-100: Continues his development by testing at Stewart.
37 - Jenson takes
Arrows's second seat.
Therefore,
Ricardo Zonta becomes
Jordan's second driver.
Enrique Bernoldi has been
Sauber's reserve driver all along, but I may have forgotten to mention it.
Tora Takagi has been in some demand:
- 1-10: Waits to see if his 1999 employers have a testing role for him.
- 11-30: Signs up as a tester for Benetton in the hope one of their drivers falls ill or something.
- 31-60: Takes up the offer of a race seat at lowly Minardi.
- 61-65: Waits to see if he can get a test with Prost.
- 66-85: Agrees to test with Williams to see what a top F1 team looks like.
- 86-100: Fed up with the offers available to him, he returns to Super Formula.
15 - Takagi becomes the Benetton test driver.
Gaston Mazzacane is a popular man; I can only presume this is for his Telefonica money.
- 1-20: Agrees to test for Arrows.
- 21-60: Turns the Minardi car bright yellow with his sponsorship.
- 61-80: Signs up as Prost's tester.
- 81-100: Agrees to make cups of tea for Jackie Stewart, and occasionally drive his cars.
87 - Mazzacane will be the
Stewart reserve driver.
Fabrizio Gollin also has a few offers:
- 1-20: He'll test for Arrows, who need his money.
- 21-40: He'll test for Prost, who need his money.
- 41-100: FORRRRRZA FERRRRRARI, FORRRRRZA FIORRRIAAAANO.
45 - An actual Italian will
test for Ferrari. Who'd have thought.
Shinji Nakano has four suitors for his money:
- 1-25: Arrows want him...
- 26-50: Jordan want him...
- 51-70: Prost want him...
- 71-100: ... and Williams want him.
55 - The lowliest of his suitors ends up with his signature. Weird.
Jorg Muller becomes
Williams reserve.
And
Ralph Firman becomes
Jordan reserve, bringing 0.5 of Epson sponsorship as well as his skills.
- - -
The only team with a race driver seat still outstanding is
MINARDI. Those drivers possibly eligible and still unattached are:
Soheil Ayari
Luca Badoer
Luciano Burti
Markus Friesacher
Marc Gene
Marc Hynes
Eddie Irvine
Michael Krumm- Patrick Lemarié
Jan Magnussen- Ricardo Mauricio
- Alex Zanardi
