By Huw Alban
December 11 2005

There appears to be a growing weight of speculation that one time Minardi pilot Tarso Marques is negotiating to take the third seat away from Nicky Pastorelli. This speculation has no doubt been fueled by Nicky's recent sponsorship problems. Both Pitpass.com and Grandprix.com have posted articles about a possible comeback to F1 by Marques through Midland. Grandprix.com is the more vague article, but Pitpass refers to sources available to it giving their report slightly more credibility. According to Pitpass, Marques is already claiming that he is top choice for the seat despite the competition from Roman Rusinov, Markus Winkelhock and Fabrizio del Monte.

Marques first appeared in Formula one in 1996 for Minardi where he participated in the two South American races. He returned on 1997, in a deal that only lasted 10 races. A year out in 1998 gave way to racing in America for Payton-Coyne Racing and Penske. In 2001 he was back with Minardi, but had to step aside for the sponsor rich Alex Yoong. Now he appears to be planning a test drive in 2006 with Midland blossoming, he claims, into a full race drive in 2007.

Hmm... we'll see...