Monday February 21st, 2000

By Alan Baldwin

Austrian Alexander Wurz will find his new Benetton formula one car a tight squeeze this season but he expects to gain from the added pain.

The tallest and heaviest driver on the grid - he measures 1.86 metres (6 feet 1-1/4 inches) - will have less room to manoeuvre in his Italian team's smaller and lighter B200 car.

Team boss Rocco Benetton admitted on Monday the 26-year-old would "have to suffer physically a little bit" during races.

But Wurz, who scored just three points last season after 17 the year before, was confident the lighter car would be more competitive as a result.

"Last year's car was probably the most comfortable car I've ever had in my career," he said at the opening of Benetton's new "Human Performance Centre" training facility at their English headquarters.

"It was just designed for me, for my size, for the length of my legs and elbows.

"It may have been comfortable but the old car's weight and aerodynamic package left it uncompetitive.

"The team explained why they wanted to make the car shorter and smaller and I said yes because for performance reasons I have no problem if it is a little bit more uncomfortable," said Wurz.

"I have done race distances already without having huge problems. Of course it's not a limousine, it's not a sofa where I sit on Sunday reading a book.

"It's a race car, it must be fast. It's a bit tougher than last year, but I don't see a problem."

A Giant Among Men

Wurz literally stands out among the Formula One crowd.

He is a giant, in a sport where drivers tend to be slight and small, weighing around 82.5kg - compared to a driver like Jaguar's Johnny Herbert who is some 65kg.

It has been calculated that at the opening Australian grand prix last season, Wurz and his car weighed more than 20 kg above the Formula One minimum of 600 kg.

That meant he carried a huge handicap in relation not only to other drivers, but also his far shorter and lighter teammate Giancarlo Fisichella of Italy.

His engineers reckoned at the time that it would translate into a penalty of around a second a lap.

Wurz's size also meant that last season, frustratingly, there were technical things that could be tried out with Fisichella's car but not on his.

He revealed he had several big money offers from other teams last season but opted to stay at Benetton out of a sense of loyalty to the team that gave him his big opportunity in Formula One.

Former champions Benetton, with a Renault-based Supertec engine, have been sliding steadily down the rankings since winning the title in 1995.

They were third in 1997, fifth in 1998 and last season came only sixth in the constructors' standings.

"It's out of loyalty that I stay here because I want to put all my effort into helping the team up again," said Wurz.

"Whatever comes in the next few years, I don't know. But I committed myself to the team that has been committed to me. We stick together and we have a great atmosphere."