D’Ambrosio race seat 95 percent sure

Eric Boullier, manager of Jérôme d’Ambrosio, has said that he is ’95 percent sure’ that the Belgian GP2 driver will make his Formula 1 race debut next year, with his final Friday drive for Virgin Racing coming in Brazil next weekend.

As planned, d’Ambrosio is driving in the first practice session on four race weekends for Virgin, replacing Lucas di Grassi in Singapore, Japan, Korea and Brazil.

However, Boullier, head of the Gravity Sport driver management company as well as being Team Principal of Renault F1, is confident over the 24-year-old’s future.

“We have almost 95 percent of the package needed to bring Jérôme D'Ambrosio into Formula 1," the Frenchman told Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, with his driver already confirmed at Virgin for the post-season Young Driver test in Abu Dhabi.

“The remaining five percent is a matter of days. Then we go to Virgin – the team that made us a concrete proposal for 2011 in September – and their sponsors, who also both want to know what the situation is for next year."

“I would love to go to the last race in Abu Dhabi with a contract signed and in our pocket."