By Phil Huff (02/10/2003)
October 2 2003

While he was always an outside bet, Minardi incumbent Jos Verstappen has now ruled himself out of a seat alongside Jenson Button at Lucky Strike BAR Honda. Leaving Minardi at the end of this season, the Dutchman is concentrating his efforts on getting a drive with Jordan or Jaguar, leaving BAR with one less name on their option list.

"At Jordan I could perhaps have the team going a bit more my way, but I'd rather drive a Jaguar," Verstappen said to Race Report magazine. "It could be difficult in the beginning and I might need to fight even harder, but if I'd have a good race engineer, I think I can come a long way."

With Jacques Villeneuve time at BAR appearing to be running out, the team need to sign a replacement. While Japanese star, and Honda protégé, Takuma Sato is favourite, there's still other possibilities, including F3000 champion Bjorn Wirdheim, US star Townsend Bell, and current test driver Anthony Davidson.