Adrian Sutil is on pole position to replace Rubens Barrichello at Williams for 2012. Multiple sources are now reporting that the door at the famous British team has been closed to Kimi Raikkonen, with Marca sports newspaper saying the Finn was asking for a whopping EUR 12 million for a single season.
“Contact (with Raikkonen) was called off last week,” said Auto Motor und Sport, revealing that Sutil and Valtteri Bottas are now the frontrunners, while the 2007 world champion opens new talks with Renault.
But veteran Barrichello might stay at Williams, after successfully finding about EUR 5 million in sponsorship to compete with Sutil’s Medion backing. Auto Motor und Sport said Sutil’s negotiations are nonetheless detailed, with Williams reportedly wanting a two-year deal but the Force India driver wanting to be free to switch to a bigger team in 2013.
At Interlagos, he sounded frustrated with Force India’s dithering over its 2012 plans.
“I wanted to know much earlier, but somehow it did not work out,” Sutil told the German broadcaster Sky. “Now we’ll see if we know in the next week, at least for us, how it stands.”
Source:GMM
