Vijay Mallya: « Force India must succeed »

Vijay Mallya stated that his Force India team had no excuse for not scoring points regularly in 2009 thanks to its technical partnership with McLaren-Mercedes.

The Woking team is a partner of the Indian team, providing engines, gearboxes, the hydraulic system, and the KERS for the new VJM02. The first full-scale tests are taking place today in Jerez.

Force India did not manage to score a single point in 2008, and the restructuring over the winter with the departures of Colin Kolles and Mike Gascoyne were, according to Mallya, carried out to move on from the team’s first year of existence.

« To be completely honest, I would not be happy if we don’t have evidence of some improvement, and if necessary, an increase in performance, » said Mallya.

« What we decided to do over the winter was to set up structures, procedures, and partnerships that lead to improvement. »

« I would like to make a good start, score points regularly, and see a clear improvement in qualifying.

The Indian entrepreneur admitted that he was not satisfied with the 2008 Force India, even though many people felt that the team managed to do the right things to keep in touch with the rest of the pack.

« When we started at the beginning of the 2008 season, we were very happy with the progress we were making, we were in the middle of the pack until we arrived in Europe, » he continued.

« We showed some encouraging early signs and I was satisfied with the progress, but compared to other teams, I think we were too tight. »

« With this perspective, I felt compelled to make some changes to the team’s structure and implement a system that, I hope, will help us bridge this gap. »

Mallya is not concerned about being directly compared to McLaren now that the two teams share the same technologies.

« By using the same transmission as McLaren, Force India now has a benchmark of its own performance. »

« Due to the late signing of the contract and the rather limited time for the design and construction of the VJM02, a comparative analysis is not possible, but I wish that from mid-season, Force India establishes a performance analysis plan. »