The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : ‘I am really disappointed’

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Monday, Mar 17, 2008
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Sport - Racing : Motor

‘I am really disappointed’

Principal Correspondent

MELBOURNE: Force India faced a harsh welcome on its Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix here on Sunday. In fact, the experience on the track did not even last long.

The experienced Giancarlo Fisichella’s race lasted just the first corner, as he was shunted out by youngsters Nelsinho Piquet Jr and Timo Glock soon after the opening melee, while Adrian Sutil promised much in the first few laps before quitting with a hydraulic pressure problem on the eighth lap.

“Another driver came in like a kamikaze into my car and it was very frustrating, especially considering a race like this where there was a possibility to score lots of points,” said Fisichella, a champion here three years ago.

“It was a good opportunity and I am really disappointed.”

Fisichella’s 25-year-old teammate Sutil said: “A big disappointment, especially when I watched the race afterwards, but it was good while it lasted.”

Picking the positives

Force India team owner Vijay Mallya was equally disappointed but was quick to pick the positives. “That’s racing. It was a bloodbath out there,” Mallya said. “Lot of cars spun, lots crashed and only seven finished the race.

“It was very unfortunate that Fisi was shunted out. And Sutil was in front of Sebastien Bourdais who was running fourth towards the end before retiring with a mechanical problem. Had Sutil continued, we could have had a superb finish,” added Mallya.

Sutil, who was forced to start from the pitlane because he had to go for a new engine, recovered nicely and was running 13th at one stage. But, misfortune struck soon after.

“The heat was horrible, with track temperature above 50 degrees. And whenever the heat was terrible, our cars were off the pace.

“We have to look at our hot weather performance as we will have similar weather at the next two rounds in Malaysia and Bahrain,” Sutil said.

The team had done nearly 8,000 kms of winter testing earlier.

Big change

Mallya was happy about the way his cars behaved at the start. “This is the first time we are racing without launch control. We’ve never done this before but both our cars took off okay.

“Apart from the McLarens and the Ferraris, the other teams are all very close. Earlier, there was a pile-up only among the front pack at the start. Now, every position is competitive. That’s a massive change from last year,” Mallya said.

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