SILVERSTONE, July 9: Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg will remain at the Sahara Force India for the 2017 Formula 1 season, team boss Vijay Mallya has confirmed.
“We are very happy with Nico and Checo. Both are signed for 2017. And really I haven’t thought about it beyond that,” Mallya said yesterday at the team bosses’ media interaction.
“In any case, we are pretty early, much earlier than normal. We used to wait almost to the onset of winter before we announced our driver line-up but this time we signed both for 2017 well in advance – and of course today’s announce by Ferrari put to rest a lot of speculation that has been taking place in the last several weeks,” said Mallya referring to speculation over Perez shifting to Ferrari, replacing Kimi Raikkonen.
Ferrari, however, announced yesterday that they would be with Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen in 2017.
Perez has been impressive this season with a third place finish in Monaco and Baku.
While Mallya made it clear that Perez and Hulkenberg were signed for next season, the Mexican said he will take a decision on his future in the summer break.
“I have said it before, I haven’t made up my decision on where my future will be. I want to take some time off and reflect on things over this summer break,” said Perez.
“Right now, the season is so intense that I don’t want to waste any energy. I want to give it all to my team because we are in a very important part of the calendar with three races in the next four weeks,” he added. (PTI)
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