Formula One news

Large upgrade for Force India

Vijay Mallya is content with the way the 2009 season is panning out for the Force India team. Pre-season, team owner Mallya, the man behind Kingfisher, hoped for points by the Spanish Grand Prix although, despite failing to register a score thus far, there have been a number of close shaves for both drivers. This weekend, a number of new components will help to push the team closer to the midfield.

The team's closest chance of scoring its first ever points unfortunately went up in smoke at the Chinese Grand Prix after Adrian Sutil lost control of his car when lying sixth in the closing stages of the race. Q2 qualifying performances by both him and team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella impressed in Monte-Carlo, as did Sutil once again when repeating the feat in Turkey and, with Fisichella having crossed the finish line ninth and less than two seconds away from a point in Monaco, Mallya can now smell success.

Vijay Mallya is pleased with the direction in which his team is heading

"I'm very pleased," he commented. "I think we've shown excellent progress and in this sport, which is so competitive, it's unreasonable to expect some miraculous results. We made Q2 in Monaco, we made Q2 again in Istanbul, obviously not by chance but on merit, and that is a huge step forward; it's so competitive now and being so close is just part of the game. I would have loved to have had a point - we were just one place away in Monaco and also Australia - but there's always the next race."

This weekend's outing at Silverstone marks the home event for the team, which plans to take significant new aerodynamic parts to its local track. "We will introduce changes to the front wing, bodywork and floor with one or two detail updates elsewhere as well," Dr. Mallya explained. "It's a significant step forward and I am very pleased that the team has been able to explore, build and then get this on the car before the summer break. Our rate of development has, I would say, been quite impressive given the small number of people and the limited budget we have available and I hope the overall package will take a step forward this weekend."

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