Michael Schumacher may have extended his world championship lead with his finely-judged victory in Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, but Giancarlo Fisichella was the name on everybody's lips in the paddock at the end of the race after the 24-year-old Italian stormed home to finish second at the wheel of his Jordan-Peugeot.
Fisichella's emergence as one of the hottest properties in the Formula One business comes at a time when many believe that the current crop of drivers are pretty average. Even Jackie Stewart, the four-times world champion, whose team started in Formula One this season, has expressed the view that there is a shortage of genuinely promising talent in the sport's most senior category.
Yet Eddie Jordan, the charismatic Irishman for whose team Fisichella has enjoyed his first full Formula One season this year, is thrilled about the Italian driver's future prospects.
By the time the Formula One fraternity meets up again at Monza in 10 days' time, Eddie Jordan will be hoping to be in a position formally to confirm that the man currently regarded as the hottest young property in the business will remain driving for his team at least until the end of 1998.
"I've said from the very beginning, at press conferences when most of the scribes around thought I was bordering on insanity, that I believe that Fisichella is a champion of the future and I've not seen anything to change my mind on that," said Jordan.
"Finishing second behind Michael Schumacher on Sunday could almost be said to be as good as a win. It was a right and fitting result for Giancarlo who certainly deserved it after his disappointment in the German Grand Prix when he retired while running second."
Fisichella, an ace kart racer from his early teens, first came to the attention of Formula One team managers when he won both the Monaco Formula 3 supporting race and the Italian Formula 3 championship in 1984. In 1996, he drove several races for the uncompetitive Minardi Formula One team, but was then taken under the wing of Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore with whom he signed a management contract.
After displaying highly competitive form while testing a Benetton last autumn, Briatore "placed" Fisichella with Jordan - reputedly paying a $1 million dollar fee for them to run him in 1997. This somewhat ambiguous arrangement was intended to keep the young Italian on the back burner for promotion to the full-time Benetton driver line-up in the 1998 season.
However, sources say that Formula One's governing body the FIA's Swiss-based Contract Recognition Board, which was established to rule over which team had priority when it came to disputes over driver contracts, will rule that Jordan can keep Fisichella.
Guardian Service
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