Vijay Mallya: “Updates will arrive for the Singapore Grand Prix”
Overtaken by Lotus in the constructors' standings, Force India is currently 6th. Vijay Mallya, owner and boss of the Indian team, reflects on the season of his own team.
Sergio Perez finished 5th in the Belgian Grand Prix, while Nico Hülkenberg was unable to start. The Indian team boss remains mixed about his team’s performance on the official Formula 1 website: “The result is as it is. Checo did an excellent job throughout the weekend, he could have been on the podium. Nico was very unhappy not to be able to start due to his power unit. Imagine if Nico had participated in the race, he would have had a similar race to Sergio. He would certainly have finished in the points, and we wouldn’t currently be 6th in the constructors’ standings. Lotus is ahead of us by one point, but nothing is lost. We need to analyze with Mercedes the reason for the problem on Nico’s car.”
Satisfied with his team, the Indian businessman is happy with his team’s performance: “Absolutely, there will be developments on the upcoming version B of our car as our chassis is more efficient than the first one. I am satisfied with the situation, although, as I mentioned, I would like to discuss the problem that occurred with Hülkenberg’s car with Mercedes. We will introduce additional improvements in the second half of the season and our goal will be to finish 5th in the standings.”
Nico Hülkenberg explained that the upcoming developments for the Force India team will arrive in time for the Russian Grand Prix, which was denied by the Indian team leader: « The updates will arrive for the Singapore Grand Prix. The upcoming tracks we will be racing on are very varied. The Monza circuit is similar to the Spa circuit. These are very high-speed circuits, whereas Singapore is very different. When the team was working to get us where we are, I told them that we cannot accept finishing last on certain tracks. We need a car that is competitive on every track, and I think we’ve achieved some good things. I am very happy with Checo’s performance at Spa, even though he has had a bit of bad luck recently ».
To conclude this interview, the native of Bantwal explained that he will keep his two drivers for the 2016 season: « I’ve always said it, I am very happy with both of them and I will keep them both. »
