Fernando Alonso was Thursday’s fastest in Barcelona, but he was giving little away to the media.<\/p>\n
Livio Oricchio, the correspondent for Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo, said the fact Ferrari is shielding the drivers from the press this winter is “angering” those in the media centre.<\/p>\n
At any rate, the so-billed ‘shootout’ between Adrian Sutil and Jules Bianchi for the last seat on the 2013 grid is attracting more attention anyway.<\/p>\n
Frenchman Bianchi is scheduled to drive the new Force India on Friday, but the weather forecast is for rain all day.<\/p>\n
After a season on the bench, German Sutil impressed the Silverstone based team on Thursday with a time quicker than his potential 2013 teammate, Paul di Resta.<\/p>\n
“It’s obvious that I’m still quick and that’s very important,” he told reporters.\u00a0 “Hopefully I’ll get the drive … what can I say?”<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old, however, acknowledged that it’s not a straight fight, as were Williams’ ‘shootouts’ between Jenson Button and Bruno Junquiera in 2000, or Nick Heidfeld and Antonio Pizzonia in 2005.<\/p>\n
“There’s a little bit of business behind it,” said Sutil, alluding to his links with Mercedes and Bianchi’s to Ferrari, regarding Force India’s eventual choice of V6 engine supplier.<\/p>\n
He admitted to F1’s official website: “My relationship with Mercedes has always been good and hopefully they are heavily interested in having me in the car this season.”<\/p>\n
Deputy team boss Bob Fernley said on Thursday that the team’s shareholders will make their decision probably at the weekend.<\/p>\n
Sutil smiled: “They’ve been saying for a month that it happens in the next week.\u00a0 Let’s see who is on the grid in Melbourne,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.<\/p>\n
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