19/03/2005
NEWS STORY
Despite claims that Sauber has contacted BAR with a view to agreeing a deal whereby Anthony Davidson will replace Jacques Villeneuve, nobody within either of the teams appears to know anything about it. Indeed the phrase Pitpass keeps hearing is that the story is a "complete fabrication".
Earlier this week, it was claimed that following a poor performance in Melbourne, Sauber was seeking to replace former world champion Villeneuve with BAR tester Anthony Davidson.
At the time, and with most of those involved en-route to Malaysia, Pitpass queried how Sauber - which, due to budget constraints, is unable to run a third car or a full test programme - could compensate both Villeneuve and BAR.
The Canadian himself has roundly dismissed the story, he admitted to having problems in Australia but claimed that these were largely due to set-up, the wrong tyres, a lack of pre-season testing and the whole process of getting used to the 'new' brakes.
With regards media criticism, he said: "I'm used to it. I've had years of practice!
"You learn not to read," he added. "It's much better."
Meanwhile, Peter Sauber has said that his team has had "no contact with Anthony or BAR" and is "100% behind Jacques," while the Brackley outfit's boss, Nick Fry, has said that his team has "had no approach from Sauber."
Davidson has been drafted in to cover for Takuma Sato this weekend, thereby confirming the fact that he is needed at Brackley.
Perhaps they meant Enrique Bernoldi.