Vijay Mallya admits that Force India must maintain its run of momentum if the team is going to finish in the top six this year. Having already given up on their goal of fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship, the squad is now chasing Sauber for sixth position.
Despite the standings seemingly proving otherwise, Force India is having its best ever season. This has been masked by the large improvements of Sauber and Williams, although Mallya’s squad is now ahead of the latter. A double score in Belgium has moved it to within 21 points of Sauber, which lost both cars in the pile-up triggered by Romain Grosjean.
“I think it was probably our most competitive showing of the year in terms of race pace,” says Mallya, Team Principal and Managing Director. “Nico (Hülkenberg) ended the race just a couple of seconds behind Räikkönen and came very close to the podium. In terms of strategy, the pit wall called things perfectly and Nico did the rest by racing hard and making no mistakes.
“I remember this time last year saying that it was the most competitive season ever in the midfield – but this year has surpassed even that. Sauber and Williams have been on the podium and will continue to be strong in the remaining races. But at the same time I believe we have the car and the team to beat them. I also remember last year we performed better in the second half of the season, so I’m optimistic for the remaining races.”
When asked if Force India can keep up its strong run, Mallya replied:
“We need to. The car was working well at Spa and looked competitive on the straights, so I’m hopeful we can carry this over to Monza where we run with even less downforce.”
Force India enjoyed one of its best ever weekends at Monza three years ago, when Adrian Sutil qualified on the front row before finishing the race in fourth position.
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