Force India Chairman and Team Principal Vijay Mallya believes fans should not jump the gun when it comes to criticising this year's regulations after the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. The Indian is also highly positive after Force India scored points in the first race of the year.
Having registered scores with Giancarlo Fisichella in Belgium and Adrian Sutil in Italy last season, it was Vitantonio Liuzzi who brought the car home in ninth to pick up two points at Sakhir - his first since joining the Silverstone-based team.
"I'm obviously very pleased, despite what happened to Adrian at the start," Mallya said, referring to Sutil's Turn 2 spin with Robert Kubica. "For this team, given our history and background, to score points in the first race is quite a remarkable effort.
"But I think, even more so, two things have made a very significant impression on me. First is our race pace - I think that's a huge statement for a relatively small team like us. The second is that there's been so much spoken about Tonio - he's not just proved himself but I think he drove beautifully; he preserved his tyres well, he was quick and he brought the car home in the points, so all credit goes to Tonio."
With a number of personalities in the paddock having suggested that the reintroduction of an in-race refuelling ban will make the majority of races processional in 2010, Mallya makes no snap judgement.
"It's hard to tell from one race and everybody was faced with a guessing game," the Kingfisher Airlines owner continued. "We didn't know how long the tyres would last in the race and there was no data to really base any proper judgement on.
"We need to give the regulations a chance to prove themselves and for people to learn how to use them. To change everything after just one race is a knee-jerk reaction - let's see how it goes in Australia and Malaysia and make an informed decision about whether we do need to react to improve the Formula 1 show. If we do, then at least we have more information to make a proper call."
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