Force India release Fisichella for Ferrari

CHENNAI - After winning a sensational podium finish for Force India at the Belgian Grand Prix last week, Italian Giancarlo Fisichella will race for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team for the rest of the season.

A replacement for 36-year-old Fisichella will be announced over the next couple of days, according to a release from Force India team here Thursday.

Fisichella’s move, as speculated in the past week, was to be expected since Ferrari, without an injured Brazilian Felipe Massa, were struggling with their replacement Luca Badoer, their long-time test driver. Massa has been out of the curcuit after an accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

With the next race on home turf at Monza, Ferrari were only too anxious to get a driver who can be competitive and provide adequate support to Finn Kimi Raikkonen who, incidentally, won in Belgium last weekend, holding off Fisichella with less than a second to spare.

Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal, said: “Giancarlo and his management team approached me yesterday with the proposal from Ferrari. For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception.”

“No one should stand in the way of this. Furthermore, the agreement will secure Giancarlo’s long-term future with Ferrari and it would be incorrect to jeopardise this, particularly when Giancarlo has made such a vital contribution to Force India,” Mallya said.

“We would like to stress that we have not agreed any financial settlement with Ferrari. This agreement has been made in good faith and for the good of Giancarlo and the sport in general,” he clarified.

“A competitive Italian driver in a Ferrari for Monza is a positive story for Formula One, which can only help raise the sport’s profile in these difficult times.”

“We would like to thank Giancarlo for all his help over the past one and a half seasons and for delivering us our first World Championship points last weekend. He has been an integral part of the team and we owe him a great deal for his input behind the scenes and performance out on track. We wish him all the best for the future,” Mallya added.

Fisichella thanked Mallya for allowing him the opportunity to drive for Ferrari.

“It is true that it has always been an ambition to do this, and for Vijay to have allowed it to become a reality is very generous. I hope in my turn I have helped Force India grow up and be on the right path to achieve their own ambitions. They are now a very competitive team and I wish them all the very best.”

Mallya said Force India would continue to build on their win at Spa-Francorchamps last week.

“For Force India, this sport is a team effort and removing one part, even a major one, will not significantly affect our performance. The competitiveness of the team seen in Belgium was a result of hard work in the factory and wind tunnel and we have further developments coming for the final races, so we are confident this momentum can be sustained. We are now looking forward to a strong finish to the season.”