Formula One news

Mallya surprised at strong start

Vijay Mallya has been pleasantly surprised by the strong start of his team this season; with a new Mercedes-Benz engine package, the Indian billionaire and Kingfisher owner hoped to see his Force India cars in the points by the Spanish Grand Prix in May, and has been further motivated by the pace of the VJM02 so far.

"Before the start of the season, we said that the first four flyaway races would be somewhat of an extended test session for the team, due to the lack of test mileage over the winter," Mallya admitted. "However, when we got to Australia and Adrian and Giancarlo were able to convincingly stay with the pack and so nearly got into the points, we were forced to re-evaluate our expectations; we know we still have some work to do, but I think we can be very encouraged by the speed, reliability and performance of the team."

Mallya takes full control of the outfit for 2009, having promoted himself to team principal and made key staff changes, which notably saw the departure of Colin Kolles and Mike Gascoyne, former team principal and technical director respectively. "2008 was very much a learning year for the team," Mallya continued. "On the basis of these lessons, I made some changes over the winter. I am pleased to see the switch to a McLaren-Mercedes drivetrain has been very reliable, and the drivers say the mechanical balance and grip has to date been very good - nobody would count us out for points, so I think this says we have made a good decision."

Although drivers Sutil and Fisichella remain cautious over the opportunity of scoring points at the moment, their boss retains his desire to see the squad score for the first time in one of the next three races.

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