Sunday March 25th, 2000

Former world champion Jackie Stewart on Sunday praised team owner Peter Sauber for pulling his cars out of the Brazilian Grand Prix and cast doubt on the safety of the recently resurfaced Interlagos track.

"I think probably Peter Sauber's done a brave thing but probably the correct thing," said Stewart, renowned as a constant campaigner for safety in Formula One.

The Swiss-based team withdrew its two cars on Saturday for safety reasons after Finland's Mika Salo crashed in free practice when the rear wing of his car came loose.

Brazilian Pedro Diniz, hoping to shine in his home race, had also suffered a similar failure.

"I think it is a very brave decision from Peter but also right," commented Salo on Saturday. "Obviously we have a problem with our wings and it's not safe to continue."

Stewart said the Interlagos track, which has had a reputation in the past for being rough and bumpy, had been resurfaced and this appeared to explain a number of incidents involving rear wings this year.

"The track is largely to blame for this," he said.

"There's not only been one wing failure - two on his (Sauber's) cars - but the Prost lost a wing this morning. There was a well-established, well-known team who also had two wings, part of the structure, crack or break on Friday."

The Prost driven by Frenchman Jean Alesi suffered a failure of the rear wing during Sunday's warm-up session.

Stewart, who sold his grand prix team to Ford last year for them to rename it as Jaguar this season, did not say which team had suffered problems on Friday.

The safety of the track was also questioned on Saturday after qualifying was stopped three times when advertising signs fell on the circuit.

"They resurfaced the racetrack but what they didn't do was look after the subsidence of the racetrack," said Stewart.

He felt that there was "an immense amount of pressure" being put on certain components, including the rear wing which is crucial to the grip of the car.

"Without it (the wing), it could cause the most horrific accident," Stewart warned.