Talks needed if sponsors want to move Perez

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Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley says talks will be needed if sponsors want to move Sergio Perez to another team.

Perez is under contract with Force India for 2017 but has been coy about his future, saying he needs to speak with his sponsors over the summer break to decide on what he will do next season. Fernley told F1i the sponsorship agreements are separate to driver contracts but admits it is possible Perez could move elsewhere if his sponsors want him to.

“As far as I’m concerned everything that now looks at it is commercial," Fernley said. "We would obviously dearly like the sponsors to stay on board but if they want to influence Checo into a different direction then we’ll have to sit down and talk.

"There’s no such thing as an iron clad anything. Both drivers are under contract but the commercial arrangements around Checo are completely separate and have to be dealt with separately."

Clarifying how Perez is left in a position with a contract but still uncertainty over his future, Fernley says the focus had been on to secure an unchanged driver line-up before worrying about sponsor negotiations.

“Checo was obviously keen to sign a contract, we were very keen to make sure the pairing stayed together because for us it is very important. What Checo has got to do now is he’s got look at which sponsors are going to come with him, if at all. But the key objective from a Force India point of view was retaining the pairing of drivers.

"I think the priority for Force India is the drivers. Then if the sponsors are willing and want to come with us then we’re thrilled to have them on board. But the most important thing is keeping the driver pairing for next year when we’re going a challenging program with the new car."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.