F1 News: Force India to show the door to Tonio Liuzzi?
Vijay Mallya’s Force India recently announced that they would reveal their official drivers’ list before the pre-season test sessions which are expected to take place in the beginning of February 2011.
The team gave an exceptional performance during 2010 even though it was just their third season in the sport.
Force India finished in seventh place just a single point ahead of Sauber. Tonio Liuzzi finished in 15th with 21 points while Adrian Sutil finished in 11th place with an impressive 47 points in the drivers’ standings.
Adrian Sutil has been performing extremely well for Force India but there are rumours that Liuzzi might have to leave the team despite the fact that his contract is valid until the end of 2011.
Since the team is growing so fast, Vijay and the team want to get the best possible drivers for 2011. However, after Liuzzi’s performance in 2010, it seems that Adrian Sutil is clearly the best option for them.
According to a media report, it is expected that the team is going to keep Adrian Sutil and promote Paul di Resta as a full season driver with Nico Hulkenberg as their reserve/test driver. It would be disappointing to see a driver like Nico Hulkenberg driving
as a third driver in a team especially after his astonishing pole position performance at the Brazilian Grand Prix 2010.
“I actually wanted Nico to be the third driver at McLaren. But Martin Whitmarsh was worried that it would be seen as a threat to Button so he didn't want to disrupt the harmony in the team for their championship hunt,” revealed Hulkenberg's famous manager
Willi Weber.
Nico Hulkenberg was replaced by the Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado and many believe that it was because Pastor brought a big sponsor from Venezuela with him.
Nevertheless, if these media reports regarding Force India’s driver’s list are correct, this would mean that Tonio Liuzzi has been dropped from the team despite the fact that his contract is valid for another season.
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