FORMULA ONE: The German Formula One driver Nick Heidfeld has signed a provisional contract with Jordan for next season that depends on the team's financial backing, his manager said yesterday.

"We've accepted a compromise," Werner Heinz said.

"Nick's basic wages will be lowered but in exchange he'll have more of his own space available for sponsors."

Heidfeld (26) was with Sauber this year but has been searching for a drive after being released last month by the Swiss-based team after they signed Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, who left Jordan at the end of this season, and Brazilian Felipe Massa.

Jordan said last week they had taken an option on Heidfeld, who will test for the team in Spain this week. Jordan are due to launch their new EJ14 car in the first week of February and are talking to a number of drivers about next season.

"I cannot wait to begin this new challenge," Heidfeld said.

Heidfeld is due to pick up a salary of $1.2million, a considerable reduction on the reported $2.6million he earned with Sauber this year.

But his dreams of continuing in Formula One may be shattered if his new team fail to present the financial guarantees needed to compete next season.

Meanwhile, Nelson Angelo Piquet and Nico Rosberg will be out to prove that winning is in their blood when they test for Williams this week, two decades after their fathers, Nelson and Keke, won world championship titles.

Piquet, whose father won the third of his world championships driving a Williams-Honda in 1987, will drive a Williams-BMW FW25 at Spain's Jerez circuit this morning. Rosberg, whose father won the 1982 title in a Williams-Cosworth, will have his chance tomorrow, having originally had a brief test in a Williams-BMW at Barcelona last year.

In their fathers' time, youth was equated with inexperience rather than optimistic promise. Formula one team principals were cagey about entrusting their cars to unproven youngsters.

Nelson senior was 25 and Keke a veteran of 29 before they were allowed in the cockpit of a grand prix car for the first time.

The younger Piquet won last year's South American formula three championship and this year finished third in the British formula three championship.

Nico Rosberg won last year's German formula BMW title and this year has contested the Euro formula three series alongside other rising stars such as the Toyota formula one test driver Ryan Briscoe and the young Austrian Christian Klein, who will be confirmed as a member of the Jaguar team this week.