Nine of F1’s eleven teams have answered “no” to whether they would consider accommodating Toyota refugee Ralf Schumacher in 2008.
Only Super Aguri and Williams would not comment, according to the German Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
“I knew that without doing an inquiry,” triple world champion Niki Lauda told the newspaper. “Ralf will probably have to stop.”
32-year-old Schumacher’s manager Hans Mahr commented: “We consider inquiries like this completely meaningless. We continue to negotiate.”
The most likely opening for Schumacher next year is at Spyker, which is now officially co-owned by his friend and Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya.
Existing Spyker driver Adrian Sutil, meanwhile, was asked by the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad who he sees as his ideal teammate for next year.
“Someone who is fast and who pushes me, because then you are forced to make yourself even better,” he said, before adding: “Someone with a big name and with much experience.”
