AUGUST 4, 2002

Why Alonso will not replace Yoong...

The rumors suggesting that Fernando Alonso would be the best man to replace Alex Yoong made a lot of sense but if they were true one would have expected to have seen the Spanish driver joining the Minardi team at next weekend's Thunder in the Park at Donington Park. The logic of this is very simple. Testing is banned at the moment so no-one can get any serious mileage before the Hungarian GP. The Minardi event at Donington Park would however provide a new driver with a couple of laps to make sure that he was comfortable in the car as going straight into a Grand Prix weekend without this basic preparation would be unwise - even if the team has the seat molds used last year by Alonso. Drivers change their shape as they go along and so there is no guarantee that Alonso would still fit the seat molded for him 18 months ago - if indeed these still exist.

It would be sensible for Minardi if Yoong's replacement ran at Donington and so one should look out for any late additions to the driver line-up. At the moment the team is planning to run Mark Webber, Yoong, Damon Hill, Paul Stoddart, David Saelens, Christjian Albers, Giorgio Pantano, Justin Wilson and Bryan Herta. If there are no substitutions one can assume that the team's second driver will be one of the above. The question is which one?