Ferrari and Sergio Perez deny reports of a race seat switch – Formula 1 news
Sergio Perez came second in the second race of the season at the Malaysian Grand Prix, and already news of him joining Ferrari has surfaced.
Perez though has maintained that plans to stick with Sauber. The rumours have come about as Ferrari have been struggling with Felipe Massa’s driving form and rumours had been rife that he might be replaced m id-season.
While Perez also added that although he is a member of the Ferrari’s Driver Academy he has no intentions of leaving Sauber mid season.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh added fuel to the speculations when he said while speaking to Sky Sports that Perez’s performance might put Massa under pressure suggesting that there may be talks of Perez to take the Ferrari seat. He even went on
to say that he is not sure of the odds of Perez driving for Ferrari in China but it must be under consideration.
Ferrari have denied any speculation linking to drop Massa and team principal Stefano Domenicali even came out in support of the Brazilian and said that we are a closely knit team and the team backs him up.
“My full commitment is with my team, with Sauber F1 team,” he said. “It's only the second race of the season and there's still a long way to go so we have to keep improving, especially because we are a small team, so for us, it's getting closer to development,
the others can improve more so it's important we remain focused. Obviously it's only rumours but no, I will stay with Sauber for the whole season.”
Fernando Alonso said that Felipe had some problems in the opening race of the season, but now the team has changed a few things in the car and in the Malaysian Grand Prix he had a better day and was more competitive.
“At the moment, with Felipe, we are a very strong team, a very united team and I don't see any possibility not to race alongside Felipe, because I think we are a strong team,” added Alonso.
It will be interesting to see how Felipe fares in China but it a question mark looms over his seat as he continues to disappoint.
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