Eric Boullier assures that d’Ambrosio will stay with Virgin

The Lotus Renault GP team manager therefore put on his Gravity Management hat to alert the Belgian partners, first through the Belgian newspaper Le Soir and then by traveling to the kingdom: « I will come to you with my Gravity boss hat because things are not going well! What was promised by the partners supposed to support Jérôme is not being delivered. We have already been given numerous excuses, but enough is enough! Especially since Virgin is starting to get upset. The team management has clearly told me that they are considering replacing Jérôme if things don’t change. Thankfully, Jérôme is doing a great job and the relationship between Gravity and Virgin is much more than contractual. We are the ones who are taking the first hits and putting our hands in our pockets to calm things down, but this can’t last indefinitely. »

It didn’t take much more to spark the controversy and start the search for potential successors. Canadian Robert Wickens was the favorite to be Timo Glock’s teammate since he is part of the pool of drivers supported by Marussia. However, the Russian manufacturer became one of the major shareholders and sponsors of the team during the off-season.

The French manager in Formation Management made a clarification in the Belgian press, with La Dernière Heure. « I simply wanted to sound the alarm, not drop a bomb. You can write that Jérôme’s place at Virgin is guaranteed until the end of the season, » reassures the director of Gravity.

It should be noted that the amount to be paid reaches five million euros to secure a seat in one of the most modest teams on the grid. However, some of the partners are public institutions, which are even less responsive than usual since the country has broken the world record for the longest duration without its own government. The signing process is therefore even slower, which could directly affect the future of Jérôme d’Ambrosio.

With the participation of RacingBusiness.fr