Zanardi's Radio Fuels Future Uncertainty.

Alex Zanardi blamed the failure of his pits-to-car radio for his retirement in Austria, amid further speculation that he may not stay in Formula One for long.


The Italian suffered the indignity of running out of fuel at the A1-Ring, but blamed the loss of radio communication for his retirement because he didn't get the signal to pit.


"The radio was working initially," Zanardi claimed, "and I heard every single message from the garage, but it stopped working some time before my engineer was calling me in for refuelling. At that moment, I was very close to Diniz - who was having some problems - and I was concentrating on overtaking him. I only saw the board on the third time it was shown - but it was too late."


Zanardi's continuing failure to score points in this year's world championship has increased speculation that he may be ditched by Williams at the end of the season - if not before. Although the most likely replacement for the Italian - Juan Pablo Montoya - has said that he is not prepared to return from the US Champcar series just yet, Williams is not known for its benevolence towards under-achievers, and Zanardi could find his position under threat from other quarters.


The Italian also came in for criticism from David Coulthard following the Austrian race, as the McLaren driver accused him of causing an obstruction. Coulthard was desperately trying to make up time following his pit-stop when he came across Zanardi's Williams which, Coulthard said, cost him any chance of winning the race.


"He is not entirely professional on the track in terms of getting out of the way of quicker cars," Coulthard fumed, "but that's racing. Sometimes you have to expect to find idiots in the way."