Italian driver Vitantonio Liuzzi has admitted the “possibility” of being officially frozen out of Toro Rosso’s 2008 lineup with an announcement on Wednesday.
Swiss reports late on Tuesday said confirmation of multiple Champ Car title winner Sebastien Bourdais’ move to the team and formula one is now imminent.
The Frenchman would for 2008 join at the Faenza based team the already-confirmed Sebastian Vettel, who recently replaced Liuzzi’s former teammate Scott Speed.
Asked by the Italian website f1grandprix.it if the Motorsport Aktuell report was true, Liuzzi said: “I don’t know.
“Anyway, I knew this possibility and I’m negotiating with other teams, so it’s not a big change for me.”
Liuzzi said it was “quite clear” even before the start of the season that both he and Speed had fallen out of favour with team bosses Franz Tost and Gerhard Berger.
He added: “That’s why I decided to look elsewhere and Scott did the same. Now we are at this point.
“The atmosphere inside the team wasn’t the best one, because many times the drivers were accused unfairly to hide the problems of the car.”
Liuzzi, who turned 25 on Monday, would not reveal the identity of his alternate employers but f1grandprix.it said Williams was one possibility.
It is also believed that Sir Frank Williams’ Toyota-powered outfit is strongly pursuing Renault test driver Nelson Piquet Jr as a potential new teammate for Nico Rosberg next year.
Liuzzi, meanwhile, dismissed German 20-year-old Vettel’s debut alongside him at Toro Rosso in Hungary as “nothing special”.
Referring to his bosses, he added: “Maybe they thought they will put him in the car and he would be half a second faster than me.
“Instead it was quite clear it was the contrary.”
