Salo sued by BAR.

Mika Salo is facing a lawsuit from former employers British American Racing, after apparently breaking his contract to drive for Ferrari last season.

The Finn acted as a stand-in at BAR after regular driver Ricardo Zonta was injured at the Brazilian GP, and remained on a testing contract when the Brazilian returned, but jumped at the chance to replace Michael Schumacher at Maranello when the German broke his leg later in the year.

This, according to the Brackley outfit, was in contravention of his BAR deal, and could have been detrimental to the team's future competitiveness had Salo shared its secrets with Ferrari. It has now summoned the Finn to account for his actions in court, and hopes to receive a settlement of around ?220,000 - rumoured to be equal to Salo's earnings for the period he was at Ferrari.