By Huw Alban
April 28 2002

The latest rumour on Jos Verstappen's future has come from site visitor Kevertje, who has seen an article on raceplant.net indicating that a link between Jos and Ferrari is still there despite the Dutchman turning down a Ferrari test seat in December of last year. It was Kevertje that first told us about the admission from Jos Verstappen that he had turned the test contract down, after a late night interview on the RTL television channel on Friday. Earlier the same day the Dutch newspaper 'De Telegraaf' had published a report that said that Jos Verstappen had been offered a test role with the Ferrari team, which he had subsiquently turned down.

During the RTL interview Jos said, "I had an offer in December for test-drive function at Ferrari, but I was unable to do that because I had a contract with Arrows, so that was standing in the way. Then this happened (the announcement that Jos had been released from his 2002 contract and replaced by Heinz-Harald Frentzen) and then I think, why didn’t I because then I would be within a top team.

We will look at what is coming up in the next few weeks, and find out where the possibilities are but that is not so difficult in this small world. I've got the advantage that I have raced for almost 100 GrandPrix, I've got a lot of experience, and I’m fast too."

Despite turning the seat down in December, raceplanet believes that Verstappen may have had a further approach from Ferrari and even now is in Italy, at the Ferrari factory for a seat fitting. Of course, these are unconfirmed rumours, but message board contributor VerstappenFan has revealed in a separate thread that, "someone who always has a good source has said Jos will test for 'red' and maybe race for 'blue' this season." In addition he says that Verstappen is currently 'abroad' and that an announcement is due soon.

Now the 'red' must mean Ferrari, for sure it has to be. As for 'blue', well it could be the old Prost outfit under the leadership of Craig Pollock or even Sauber - in either case both teams are powered by Ferrari which is perhaps what the "test for 'red' " relates to.