Sunday June 25th, 2000

Mika Salo has been offered a drive with the Toyota Formula One team due to enter in 2002, it has been confirmed.

There have been strong rumours recently about Salo's future, and it is believed Salo is likely to join the Toyota team at the end of this year even though he is currently under contract to the Sauber team for 2001.

The Toyota team are offering Salo a four year deal, reported to be worth about US$6 million per season, and are willing to pay off his contract at Sauber to ensure he joins them next year.

Salo has previously shown he is prepared to wait for the right drive to come along, so despite next year being purely testing and development of the car, this is not seen as a problem. Although the team is likely to struggle initially, Toyota have the budget and technology to become a force, something that is unlikely to occur at Salo's current team, Sauber.