Wurz to decide future soon

McLaren test driver Alex Wurz could be on the move to a race seat for next year and said his future lies with one of three teams. Wurz made his first forays into Formula One in 1996 with tests for Sauber and Benetton and had his first races with ...

McLaren test driver Alex Wurz could be on the move to a race seat for next year and said his future lies with one of three teams. Wurz made his first forays into Formula One in 1996 with tests for Sauber and Benetton and had his first races with Benetton in 1997. His first full season was with Benetton in 1998, where he remained until moving to McLaren as test driver last year.

Test driver Alexander Wurz.

Photo by McLaren Mercedes.

Now the Austrian is considering his future: "There are a few seats being targeted by a lot of drivers and others will only be filled once these prime ones are gone," he told his official website. "It seems that it is the teams rather than the drivers who are waiting. But the first move needs to start..."

"My future will be with one of three teams, with one of them I am very close already, but the key question now is timing. I will see how things develop over the next 10 days and then will quite likely make a decision before Hockenheim. I will let you know more, but it could still take a while until everything becomes public."

Wurz was put out when McLaren chose Kimi Raikkonen to replace Mika Hakkinen as he thought the race seat would be offered to him. Hakkinen is also expected to make a decision soon about whether he will return to F1. The double world champion presumes to rejoin McLaren if he opts to come back, although team boss Ron Dennis says driver line up for 2003 is not yet decided.