Minardi Denies Badoer Sack Threat.

Team boss Giancarlo Minardi has played down speculation that he is about to axe Luca Badoer from his squad, claiming that the Italian needs time to recover from the hand injury sustained in testing.



Badoer - a part-time Ferrari test driver - has so far failed to live up to the pre-season expectation he brought to the team, and has struggled to match the performances of rookie team-mate Marc Gene. A broken hand, sustained in a testing shunt shortly after the Australian GP meant that he missed Brazil, and has struggled to catch up ever since. Rumours of his demise are exaggerated, however, according to his employer.


"I don't know where these rumours are coming from," Minardi said, We're happy with both our drivers, and Luca's season effectively starts here because his injury came at the worst possible time for him. He will now have to show his performance has not been affected by the accident, and go on to help the progress in the way we had expected this year."


Shinji Nakano, a Minardi driver in 1998, has been mentioned as a possible replacement for the Italian.