Salo Speaks Out.

Sauber's new recruit Mika Salo has been holding forth on several subjects in recent days - and not all of them will have found favour with his rivals.


Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher and even his own team have come under the Finn's scrutiny, as he launched a blistering start to the new season.


Although he claims not to been upset at having been passed over as Schumacher's team-mate at Ferrari, Salo believes that the team's choice of Rubens Barrichello may have been misguided. According to the man who subbed for Schumacher in 1999, the Brazilian will not be able to cope with either his team-mate's pace or politics, and hopes that he will be on a par with the German have yet to be founded.


"To be honest, I think Michael will destroy [Rubens] quite quickly," Salo said, "They have not even been testing together yet."


Schumacher is quite clearly the Finn's tip for the top this season, and this has little to do with his reported dislike of countryman Mika Hakkinen. Salo believes that, as in both 1998 and 1999, Schumacher and Hakkinen will be the only drivers in with a shout of lifting the championship crown, and he is backing the German to finally end Ferrari's world championship drought.


"I imagine it will between Michael and Mika again," he revealed, "I think Michael will be very fast this year. He should have won it last year if he hadn't hurt himself - he is just so good. I think Ferrari will be putting everything behind him to win, and I honestly think he will do it."


Salo also revealed that he is pushing Ferrari to put its weight more behind his own Sauber outfit, which uses the Scuderia's cast-off engines again in 2000. He is scathing of some of the technology on the Swiss team's new car, but hopes that the advances made by Ferrari will eventually help it to take advantage of his rival's mistakes.


"The Sauber has Stone Age electronics," Salo spat, "but there is a better engine and a lot more co-operation from Ferrari than before - and it looks like paying off. I'm pushing hard to get more from Ferrari - we don't have power steering yet, but the car is already quite fast, and it should be a promising year when we get the parts we need.


"The top four positions are already gone [with McLaren and Ferrari], so we have to trust that one or two of them won't finish. Last season, they both screwed up a couple of times and let someone else in to win. You have to be right behind them when they screw up to collect the points, or someone else will.


"I would be happy if we are racing with the Jordans and Jaguars, up where we belong in third or fourth position in the constructors' championship and, maybe, having the first win this year. Then I will have done my job."


Salo is less confident of others, however, claiming that British rookie Button will have to learn quickly if he is not to become a liability on the track.


"I hope he can handle it because, if he can't, he will hurt himself or somebody else," Salo said, "Testing F1 and racing F1 are two different things - when you are testing, you are alone, when you are racing you have 21 other cars around you."


The Finn and Sauber team-mate Pedro Diniz have surprised onlookers with the pace of the new C19 in testing this season, and could be one of the surprises when the year 2000 campaign kicks off in Melbourne next week.