Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: [ENG] Webber and Toyota

Source: 
grandprix.com
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns12988.html
This week there have been rumours that Mark Webber could be on his way
to Toyota next year. This is not entirely unexpected given that Mark
Webber's management, which is run by Flavio Briatore, needs to find
somewhere to put Webber next year and there is no shortage of journalists
in F1 who will run any story which is whispered into their ears.
Webber is on his way to Williams but the creation of an opportunity at
Toyota is necessary so that Briatore has some notional alternative for
Webber in order to force Williams to pay for Webber's release. This is
twisted Formula 1 logic but it is clear that Briatore wants to keep
Fernando Alonso at Renault in the long-term. He can hardly dump Jarno
Trulli because this year the Italian has overshadowed the Spaniard. Thus
Webber's intended career path of moving from Jaguar to Renault is now
blocked. The Australian has a contract with Jaguar for next year but it
is very unlikely that the team will meet the terms of a performance
clause which will come into effect at the start of July, probably at the
French GP when the halfway point in the season is over.
This means that Webber will soon be free from all restrictions except a
contract he has with Briatore (rather than Renault). It seems that in
this there are terms which force Briatore to ensure that Webber has an F1
drive in 2005 and if he is not at Jaguar or Renault the options are
somewhat limited. If Briatore offers him a deal that is worse than
Renault, Webber will have good reason to cancel the contract and so
Briatore has to find a suitable alternative if he wants to collect a
pay-off from Williams. There is no chance at Ferrari and McLaren and a
rather poor attempt was made recently to start rumours that Webber would
be going to BAR-Honda next year. Now, surprise, surprise, we have rumours
about Webber and Toyota.
Toyota would probably be quite interested in signing Webber but what
no-one seems to have taken into account at the moment is why Webber would
want to go to Toyota. The team will get better with Mike Gascyone but it
is still developing and it will be several years before it gets into the
same kind of position as Williams now has. And things can go wrong.
In addition Webber knows that Ralf Schumacher will almost certainly be at
Toyota next year and was trying hard to get a deal which enabled him to
name his own team mate.
All things considered therefore we still expect to see Webber at Williams
next year and we do not expect Briatore getting much of a pay-off from
Williams to release Webber from his private management contract.
End of story.
Copyright 1988-2004, Inside F1, Inc.
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 name his own team mate.
Bellissima questa parte: l'altro giorno con un amico si discuteva del
fatto che accanto a una personalità notevole c'è sempre un fratello
scemo (
p.es
. Silvio & Paolo) e se la notizia è vera confermerebbe una
volta di più che Ralf ha il complesso di non essere Michael. Avere lo
stesso manager tra l'altro non aiuta.
-- 
Alessio F. Bragadini		
ale...@sevenseas.org
"E allora? Turarsi il naso. Coprirsi. Cambiare canale. Cambiare
passione. Cambiare mestiere. Resistere. Sognare, forse."