Giancarlo Fisichella is adamant that Force India’s recently confirmed technical partnership with McLaren-Mercedes will not affect his contract to race for the team next year.
Force India entered into a five-year partnership with McLaren last month which will see the team benefit from Mercedes-Benz horsepower as well as the team’s KERS technology.
The deal triggered speculation about the future of Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella with McLaren’s test driver Pedro de la Rosa testing for Force India at Barcelona.
However, Fisichella is confident that he will race for the team next year having signed a refreshed contract when the McLaren deal was confirmed.
“The line-up has been announced in China in October by Vijay, and I trust people who trust me,” Fisichella told the official F1 website.
“I originally signed a two-year contract which was reviewed in September to incorporate the McLaren deal. In a few words, the team offered me a better car and a different package.
“I accepted their proposal and both sides signed the new document between Singapore and China. This is why Dr Mallya made the announcement in Shanghai.”
Fisichella added that Pedro de la Rosa’s test did not come as a surprise. “The only thing I know is that in September we were told that Pedro could test and we could not say before it was made official so I was not at all surprised,” he said.
“As for the rest – I am not really interested in F1 gossip!”
“A competitive package, that’s all I want and what I have been promised. And that is a very good reason to drive for the team in 2009.”
