Force India will not rush Perez talks

Force India will not rush negotiations with Sergio Perez's sponsors regarding his future with the team.

Perez has a contract for 2017 but has cast doubt over his future in recent months by saying he would need to talk to his sponsors regarding his plans. With a number of Mexican backers, Perez has a complex contractual situation which deputy team principal Bob Fernley says requires time to finalise, with Force India willing to be patient.

“It would be nice to sort soon but it has got to go its own pace and you can’t rush these things," Fernley told F1i. "It’s quite complicated in the case of Checo and quite sophisticated, so we’ve got to allow it to roll so that everybody is happy. They are our partners at the end of the day and we want to make sure we work with them.”

After Perez finished fifth behind team-mate Nico Hulkenberg at Spa-Francorchamps - helping Force India leapfrog Williams in the constructors' championship - Fernley says the performance shows the Mexican is not distracted by the situation, adding he expects him to stay.

“No, I think that proved it," Fernley replied when asked if he's happy Perez is delivering regardless of uncertainty over his future. "We don’t have any issues, we’ve got a process to do, you sign driver contracts and then you talk commercial. We’ve done driver contracts and we’re now talking commercial.”

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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.