Szafnauer: Force India needs fast driver instead of pay-driver

Force India has added fuel to speculation it is considering Sebastien Buemi or Adrian Sutil to replace the Sauber-bound Nico Hulkenberg in 2013.

Officially, the Silverstone based team says it has not been told that German Hulkenberg is leaving, but other insiders consider it a done deal.

Team owner Vijay Mallya this week admitted 2011 driver Adrian Sutil is one potential candidate to replace Hulkenberg, while Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko named Force India as a possible employer for current reserve driver Sebastien Buemi in 2013.

Otmar Szafnauer, Force India's chief operating officer, would not be drawn on the speculation, but he did hint that the team is not simply in the market for a 'pay driver'.

"If we do lose Hulkenberg to Sauber," he told the Swiss newspaper Blick, "then we have a list of some names.

"We do not need a driver with millions; we need the fastest one," he added.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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