The recent deal announced earlier this week between F1 race teams Force India and McLaren Mercedes could result in a change of drivers for the Force India team, boss Vijay Mallya has revealed.
Mallya has suggested that any recommendations made by McLaren will be taken seriously, saying he would be hard pressed to ignore their advice. Force India currently have drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil under contract, but have not ruled out other drivers being tested.
McLaren and Mercedes have several drivers on their books including 22year old Scot Paul de Resta as well as the more experienced Spanish test driver Pedro de la Rosa and the recent agreement between the two teams has already led to speculation that the current Force India drivers will be under extreme pressure to prove themselves.
The Formula 1 news of the partnership between McLaren and Force India led to Mallya restructuring the management team at Force India, with former team principal Colin Kolles and technical head Mike Gascoyne being ousted and the supply of Ferrari engines being terminated a year early.
McLaren will supply Force India with the complete drive chain for their race car, engine, gearbox as well as KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) and have also moved Simon Roberts from McLaren Applied Technologies into Force India as chief operating officer.
McLaren have made it clear that they will offer whatever is needed to make the Force India team a viable proposition on the track, with McLaren chief Martin Whitmarsh saying “We will make proposals and recommendations that we think are enhancing the prospect of good performance from this team.”
Whether that results in a change of drivers for Force India remains to be seen, but Fisichella and Sutil will face a nail biting few months before any announcement is made.
Other seats up for grabs in the F1 news this week, are those at Toro Rosso, where three drivers are to be evaluated at Spains Catalunya circuit next week. Sebastien Bourdais the 2008 driver will be assessed alongside Red Bull test driver Sebastian Buemi and former Honda and Jordan driver Takuma Sato.
Brazilian drivers Rubens Barrichello and Bruno Senna are also rumoured to be in the frame for the Toro Rosso team who have two seats up for grabs after Sebastian Vettel joined Red Bull. Toro Rosso finished the season five points ahead of their senior team Red Bull, using the same car fitted with a Ferrari engine rather than the Renault engine used by Red Bull.
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