The waiting for the Dutch Formula One fans is over: Jos Verstappen has signed a contract with the Tyrrell team. He will team-up with the Fin Mika Salo. Verstappen drove for the Arrows team last year and has shown very good things in the failing car.

Verstappen commented: "The chance to join the Tyrrell team was an opportunity not to be missed. It is a very solid team with a long history. The team has an experienced staff and has a bright future ahead. It is an ideal learning place for young drivers. More than once drivers have reached the absolute top through the team of Ken Tyrrell."

The Sauber Ferrari deal will go trough. The two teams will set up an independent company to develop the 1996 V10 Ferrari engine, Suzuka set-up. The talks seemed to be canceled two weeks ago but now a two year deal has been made. This deal means a boost for the Sauber team because they will now have enough power to compete with the top teams.

Nicola as signed with the Sauber team for the 1997 season. The Italian driver has driven 44 Grand Prix' in his career and was driving in the ITC touring car championship over the last couple of years. He also was the test driver for Ferrari and was hoping for a seat next to Michael Schumacher this year.

Gerhard Berger has very much overcome his crash this week during testing by being the fastest man today at the Estoril (Portugal) test today. He showed that the Benetton has improved so much over the last year that they are now at the level of the Williams cars or even better. Berger clocked a fastest time of 1m 19.69s. Benetton will hope that their 1997 car can compete with Williams and Ferrari from the start of the season. David Coulthard was second in the McLaren Mercedes with a very fast time of 1m 20.12s. Ralf Schumacher tested a 1m 21.22s.

Jorg Muller showed again that he might have been the right man next to Damon Hill at the TWR F1 team, because he is substantially faster than second driver Pedro Diniz almost every test day when they are both on the track.