Gene allowed to join the field on Sunday.

Published on 06 March 1999 by Charles Webster

Minardi debutant Marc Gene is allowed to join the race on Sunday's opening race of the Formula 1 season. The Spaniard did not manage to qualify within the 107% limit. The Minardi team however asked the stewards for a permission to allow Gene to start. The Italian team claimed that Gene missed the cut due to circumstanced outside his control. The Spaniard comment was " On Friday everything was OK, but today something was wrong with the setup of the car which stopped me from driving competitive laps." Maybe the Minardi debutant was given the benefit of the doubt after his suprising laptimes in preseason testing.

The Jordan team announced in Melbourne that ex-Minardi and Prost driver Shinji Nakano will be the team's new testdriver. According to Eddie Jordan the new restrictions in testing call for a good backup for regular drivers Frentzen and Hill. A more pausible explanation is to please Honda with an eye on a new engine contract after 1999.