Force India team owner Vijay Mallya says he might reconsider Adrian Sutil's position if criminal charges were filed against him in relation to his alleged incident with Renault co-owner Eric Lux in China.
Lux recently announced that he intended to file a criminal complaint against the Force India driver. Mallya said until there was any firm news about the action, it would be wrong for Force India to make any presumptions about Sutil and the incident in China.
"As far as my position is concerned, there has been a press release issued which described an incident, we have not heard of any formal complaint being registered in any country for misconduct by Adrian so it would be highly inappropriate of us to presume he did something," he said.
"It would be equally presumptuous that he would be guilty of wrongdoing and take action against him. If we received a formal complaint or there is some form of formal legal inquiry, we will take appropriate action at that time – but we cannot be presumptive."
Mallya underlined that Force India would consider removing Sutil from the race drive if the circumstances required it, but that at present he saw no reason to make any changes.
"Contracts do not supersede misconduct," he said. "I am not willing to jump to conclusions based on a press release that has been given out by a supposedly aggrieved party, I don't know what happened in that particular incident.
"There is a due process of law, so if Adrian is charged with misconduct, if and when he is charged, I will assess the situation."