Ferrari: Hulkenberg and Bourdais among the candidates to replace Badoer

Two other drivers have been added to the list of possible candidates to possibly replace Luca Badoer at the wheel of Ferrari. The 38-year-old Italian delivered a disappointing performance in Valencia and the Maranello team have admitted that, if Badoer fails to improve his performance at Spa, he will be forced to look for an alternative.

Williams test driver Nico Hulkenberg, currently leading GP2 and managed by Michael Schumacher's manager Willi Weber, has been mentioned as a possible candidate.

"Nico would currently be the most logical solution," Weber told Bild.

The name of Sebastien Bourdais was also mentioned, recently fired from Toro Rosso but still assisted by Nicolas Todt, who also looks after the interests of the injured Felipe Massa.

"It's up to Ferrari to decide," the Frenchman told RMC radio. “Unfortunately for me there are many other candidates waiting,” Bourdais said. "Nicolas spoke about me to the Ferrari management but my name is not at the top of the list".

Meanwhile, the criticism of Luca Badoer continues: "If I lost two or three seconds on every lap I would be better off staying at home" Robert Kubica declared to the Spanish newspaper AS.

"If Badoer is also slow in Spa as he was in Valencia it will be a safety problem" added Adrian Sutil to the German newspaper Focus.

"Losing two and a half seconds is impossible. I experienced a similar gap from Montoya the first time I drove an F1, and I was 17!" said Nico Rosberg.

David Coulhtard, however, has a different opinion: "They are already thinking about 2010 so the rest of the season will be more of a test than anything else. And who better than the regular test driver can report driving impressions to the engineers?" the Scotsman told the Daily Telegraph.