Despite having tested for the Silverstone-based squad towards the end of last year,
Ralf Schumacher was ‘never a candidate' for a
Force India drive in 2008, Vijay Mallya has revealed.
At the time stating he was keen to prolong his eleven-year career in the top flight, the German was slowest of all drivers present on his try-out for the former Spyker concern at
Jerez, but afterwards he claimed that he had probably driven a
Formula 1 car for the final time.
Now team owner Mallya has admitted that the 32-year-old – who has now switched across to the DTM with Mercedes-Benz, finishing 14th and tenth respectively in his first two races in the pan-European tin-top series – was never in the frame.
“Ralf is a good friend,” the Kingfisher Airlines billionaire told German magazine
Auto Motor und Sport, seemingly corroborating Schumacher's insistence back in December that he had been merely fulfilling a promise to the Indian businessman.
“He was never a candidate. I asked him to test our car once in the winter because I wanted to know his opinion.
“The real alternatives to [Giancarlo] Fisichella were [Vitantonio] Liuzzi, [Christian] Klien and [Franck] Montagny – not Ralf.”
