Flying Irvine may be sacked

Eddie Irvine stormed into the lead in the Formula One drivers' championship yesterday amidst further rumours that the Ferrari number one may already be out of a job.

Irvine cruised to victory at the German Grand Prix after McLaren fell victim to a Hockenheim hex which saw Mika Hakkinen suffer a massive blowout and David Coulthard twice relegated to the back of the pack. But pit lane gossip yesterday insisted that the Irishman's job at the Italian team has gone to Rubens Barrichello.

A direct swap involving Irvine and the Brazilian has been grinding through the rumour mill for weeks, but yesterday the gossip cranked into a higher gear with suggestions that Barrichello has already signed for Ferrari.

A £6.25 million deal has apparently been tabled for Irvine's services, and, with David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen yesterday confirmed at McLaren for 2000, the swap would appear to be more and more concrete.

Irvine had made no secret of his desire to drive the McLaren, but initial, badly played overtures were rejected by team boss Ron Dennis. The link-up was again mooted after Coulthard's rash misjudgement at last week's Austrian Grand Prix resulted in him shunting his team-mate off the track, but that avenue was closed to Irvine yesterday when McLaren announced it was re-signing both drivers for next season.

A move back to Jordan, where he raced from 1993 to 1995, still remains an option for Irvine, but Stewart, increasingly underwritten by Ford following the motor manufacturer's purchase of the team in June, remains the most logical port of call for the Irish driver. Yesterday though, thoughts of the future mattered little as Irvine celebrated his second successive grand prix victory, a win which catapults him into an eight-point lead in the race for the drivers' title.

The victory, on a circuit which has been famously unkind to the Scuderia, was cause for a double celebration as stand-in team-mate Mika Salo completed a Ferrari one-two to further shore up the team's lead over McLaren in the constructors' championship. The Italian team now hold a comfortable 16-point lead in the race to the title.

Hakkinen, who had led from pole position, fell victim to a spectacular blow-out on the 26th lap.

Further fuel was added to the firestorm of rumours surrounding Irvine's future after his win at the A1 Ring when the Ferrari sporting director, Jean Todt, absented himself from the podium celebrations in favour of technical director Ross Brawn.

Relations between the Frenchman and Irvine are believed to be strained, but last week Irvine was at pains to explain that Brawn's presence was part of a deal to rotate podium appearances for technical staff. Yesterday Irvine was joined by the team's chief mechanic, Nigel Stepney, while Todt watched on with the rest of the team from the parc ferme.

Todt was, however, embraced by a jubilant Eddie Jordan, a gesture which will no doubt result in further suggestions of a Jordan-Irvine merger. The real answer lies only with Irvine himself, and for once he is remaining tight-lipped. Asked last week about plans for the future, the Irishman said simply: "It's not something I'm really thinking about. I'm pretty much leaving it to Enrico, my manager, who knows what I want to do and I'm leaving him to get on with it. I want to concentrate on getting the results that are required for this year."

With those results coming thick and fast, Irvine may now have to turn his thoughts to the future a little earlier than anticipated.