27/11/2009
NEWS STORY
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Force India has confirmed that Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi will remain with the team for the 2010 season, thus giving the team complete consistency in its driver line-up.
2010 will be Sutil's fourth season in Formula 1. The 26-year-old German started his F1 career with Force India's predecessors, Midland, as a test and reserve driver in 2006 before graduating to a race seat with Spyker in 2007. In 2009 he recorded his best-ever F1 finish of fourth at the Italian Grand Prix, also securing his first front row start.
Liuzzi retains his race seat following his move up from the team's test and reserve driver role at Monza this year. The 28-year-old Italian made his race debut in 2005 with Red Bull Racing and moved to Toro Rosso for 2006 and 2007. In 2008 he became Force India's third driver.
Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal: 'We are very pleased to retain the services of both Adrian and Tonio for another season. We have always maintained that consistency is key at this stage in the team's development and for the first time in many years we will have the continuity of not only the same drivers, but also the same engine and senior management. With this stability now in place I truly believe we have an excellent platform to build on and move forward on our strong 2009 performance. I am sure we have one of the most dynamic line-ups on the grid and I hope this will stand us in good stead in what we all hope will be a transitional year for the team.'
Adrian Sutil: '2010 will be my fourth consecutive year with the team. I feel good here, it feels like family, and when you feel at ease you can focus your energy 100% on getting it right on track. Next season I want to be in the points on a regular basis, maybe even challenging for the podium, and the team has exactly the same goals. We are going massively in the right direction so with our combined energies I'm confident we can achieve even more than last season.'
Tonio Liuzzi: 'It was always my goal to be back racing in 2010 and I've finally achieved it. I feel the five races I did in 2009 were a bit of a warm-up; get back racing, learn the car, get the feeling back. Now I've done that I feel ready to really push next season. We were pretty strong in the last part of the 2009 season so if we pick up where we stopped I think we could be in for a good year. For sure points are the aim and showing everyone what we can do.'
An announcement regarding the third driver will be made in the weeks following the young driver test.