After a slow start to the year, Force India grabbed 14 points in the Italian GP and climbed back to the fifth spot in the constructors’ race, 13 ahead of Lotus. The Silverstone-based team is now poised to record its best-ever finish in Formula One this year.
When Vijay Mallya bought the Spyker F1 team and formed Force India in 2008, there were bold predictions from the top management: of podium finishes and wins within a few years.
Though the team did achieve its first podium in 2009, at the Belgian GP, it has managed just one more — Bahrain 2014. It has also evolved into a solid midfield team.
The team has steadily improved over the years, bettering its tally every year except in 2013.
Last year, running with the same engine as McLaren, Force India finished just 26 points behind the former.
“When I bought the team in 2008, a gap of half-a-second was not large, but over the years, we have been fighting tenths of a second. In such a scenario, we consistently finish in the top 10 with two cars and that is a tremendous achievement,” said Mallya to The Hindu . “I have a staff of 382 employees while some of the big teams employ over 600, spend more than double our budget, and we still beat the likes of McLaren and Ferrari. I like to believe that we are the most efficient team with the biggest bang for a buck.”
Though Force India, like other mid-sized outfits, struggles with smaller budgets compared to the big units, coupled with the business interests of its owners constantly casting a shadow over its future, the team has motored on. With the prize money distribution favouring the biggies, the midfield teams have found the going difficult and their voices often go unheard.
“The big teams want everything for themselves but for the sport to be sustainable you can’t have just the biggies running around. The commercial rights holder and the FIA have to realise this and understand that the small ones too are as important to the DNA of F1,” Mallya said.
Earlier this year, Force India missed two pre-season tests and introduced a proper 2015-spec car only at the British GP. With seven races to go, Mallya said, “We have new upgrades here and will have a few more by Austin or Mexico. Our aim is not to sustain the fifth position but to target Red Bull which is fourth (50 points ahead). This is something we can do.”
Talking about the scrapping of the Indian GP, Mallya said: “We are going to Baku in Azerbaijan next year. I didn’t even know where it was on the map. I am looking at which one of my sponsors is interested in that market and which one of the other teams’ sponsors is not interested in the Indian market. “I have been pleading with Bernie Ecclestone to return, but I don’t own the track and can’t do much about it.”
Published - September 19, 2015 12:40 am IST
