Thursday May 31st, 2001

Brazilian driver Tarso Marques is being tipped to leave the European Minardi team before the end of the season because of his poor performance so far in 2001.

Marques, who made his Formula One debut at the 1996 Brazilian Grand Prix before moving to the American CART championship for the past two seasons, has been clearly outperformed by his less experienced teammate Fernando Alonso, and Minardi is thought to be looking for a replacement.

F3000 driver Tomas Enge was one of the favourites to replace Marques, but Minardi denied being interested in the Czech driver earlier this week.

"Like all Formula One teams we keep an eye on young drivers, but we have no plans to run Tomas Enge," a Minardi spokesperson told Sportal. "If anybody gets a drive it is going to be Andrea (Piccini) because we've promised him one and when we start a testing programme he will probably be doing a bit."

Piccini, who currently drivers for the European Minardi F3000 team is now thought to be on the Italian team's shortlist. Veteran Gianni Morbidelli, who was tipped for a racing seat before the start of the season, is also thought to be a likely candidate.

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(03-11-2005): Australian GP Paddock Gossip (03-09-2005): Greece Finds Site for Formula One Track (03-09-2005): Red Bull Set to Get Honda Engines in 2006 (03-08-2005): Schumacher in Line for Sporting Oscars (03-07-2005): Daily Grapevine Sunday Analysis - Australia

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