Formula One: Takuma Sato's stirring fifth place in the season-closing Japanese Grand Prix last weekend could save the young Japanese driver's seat at Jordan if he can source major sponsorship from his homeland, team boss Eddie Jordan has said.
Sato's seat at the Irish team has been under threat for some time. Jordan will move over to Ford Cosworth engines next year and Sato's support from 2002 engine supplier Honda will cease to be a factor in his employment at the Silverstone-based team.
Eddie Irvine has been tipped for a move to Jordan from Jaguar, a transfer likely to be part bankrolled by Jordan sponsor Benson & Hedges but according to Jordan, if Sato can source significant sponsorship from Japan then his place at the team could be saved.
"I have heard this and I have had no talk with Eddie whatsoever about this and I don't know how this rumour started," Jordan told ITV Sport. "We do have a contract with Sato but corporate Japan have to make some future commitment and I'm sure they will."
Waiting in the wings is Irvine, and Jaguar team-mate Pedro de la Rosa has revealed he believes the Irishman will not be racing at the troubled Ford-backed team next year. "Working with Irvine has been the worst part of the season," de la Rosa said yesterday. "He's very inconsistent with his decisions and it's very hard to work with him, especially when things are going wrong.
"When things are going right everybody is happy, but when things go wrong you have to be united, and that has been very hard with him. We hardly talked at the start of the season, and as the races went by, we stopped talking to each other.
"I'm not the one responsible (keeping him for 2003), but as far as I know he won't (stay). I hope he won't."
Elsewhere, two European circuits were facing the axe after it was officially confirmed China would join the Formula One calendar from 2004. Shanghai will host a raceafter agreeing a seven-race deal, International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley confirmed.
China will join recently announced Bahrain in staging a grand prix from 2004 as Formula One expands globally at the expense of its European heartland.
Currently, 11 of the 17 races are held in Europe. Belgium, Austria and Imola in Italy, which hosts the San Marino Grand Prix, are understood to be the tracks that are most at risk.
