By Huw Alban
December 28 2005

News during the Christmas break has been scant, so it's been an ideal opportunity to check out the general F1 forums on the net and catch up on the latest gossip being talked about. Takuma Sato's name came up a number of times, linked with a drive at Midland F1... ... and so I decided to check the gossip out with our sources at Midland.

It has been confirmed to us that Takuma Sato was offered a contract by Midland to race for the team in the 2006 season. The rumours out there suggest that this contract was signed by Takuma giving Midland an option on the Japanese driver - although this has not been confirmed.

Since this offer it would appear that communications between the driver and the team have dried up. In F1 this means nothing, but it has been revealed to us that the No.2 seat should be confirmed early in 2006.

"Since that time (the contract was offered)," our sources told us today, "there have been no further discussions and although anything is possible, I would rate his chances of joining the team at this point as ‘highly unlikely’. Expect the other race seat to be confirmed early next month."

Tiago fans place your enthusiasm on standby !