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Liuzzi trusts contract will keep him at Force India

Tonio Liuzzi is confident he will stay at Force India next year © Sutton Images

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• Feature:
• Responding to rumours
  
• News:
• Di Resta set for 2011 race drive
  

• Drivers:
• Paul di Resta
• |
• Tonio Liuzzi
• |
• Vijay Mallya
• |
• Adrian Sutil

• Teams:
• Racing Point

Tonio Liuzzi has responded to rumours that Paul di Resta might take his place at Force India next year, saying that he has a contract and strong relationship with the team.

Autosport reported last week that di Resta would take Adrian Sutil's place if the German driver moved to another team and Liuzzi's place if Sutil stayed put. However, Liuzzi said he is not worried about his position and has heard no indications that that is the case from inside the team.

"Personally I don't know if he has a place or what his contract says, but from my understanding that would mean that Adrian is out because I have a contract," he said in his ESPNF1 column. "The truth is that I haven't heard anything like that from inside the team and nothing has changed, so I can only assume that the stuff on TV and in the papers is a rumour."

Liuzzi has had a tough season with Force India after chassis problems and trouble with the F-duct have held him back. While his 36 point deficit to team-mate Sutil may look bad on paper, he insists it only tells half of the story and the team knows that.

"It's well appreciated in the team that my results have not been my fault and Vijay Mallya has given me his full trust," he added. "In a few weeks more information will come out, but I'm not worried by the speculation in the press in the mean time. That kind of stuff is normal at this stage of the year, especially when there are rookies that people want to get into the business - more and more rumours are created. I don't really fear that, I just want to do the best I can for the team and secure Force India sixth in the championship."

He said that beating Williams to sixth in the championship is an attainable target, despite Force India's lead narrowing to just five points after Singapore.

"I'm confident that we will be fast until the end of the season and the next race at Suzuka will be a big chance to increase the gap. But we can't deny that Williams have done a good job in the last few months and we know that they won't just go to sleep and make it easy for us. But we've also got remember that we have been unlucky with the car and missed out on a few points that we should have had."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.