Indian Autos blog

Force India faces no major issues at it books into Jerez on Feb 10

As the build up to the 2010 Formula 1 season intensifies, confidence and more of it is oozing from the Force India camp.

Force India will miss the first test at Valencia. Their debut run will come at Jerez between February 10-13. Force India have been working very hard for the past one year and the results were satisfying in the second half of the 2009 season.

Force India driver Adrian Sutil -

Our team is currently one of the few without any problems

As Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil prepare to slip into their overalls, a 23-year old Scott Paul Di Resta who raced in the German DRM series last year, is doing whatever it takes to be the Indian team’s reserve driver. Di Resta showed his pace during F1′s young driver test at Jerez in December where he posted lap-times that placed him in the top four on the timesheets. Di Resta is hoping his strong performance will be noted by Vijay Mallya and his team.

Paul Di Resta -

I’m trying to build a future with Force India. They’ve got a reserve driver role up for grabs and I’m going to try to get it, which hopefully in the future will turn into a race drive

An announcement from the team is expected shortly.

Adrian Sutil qualified third in a qualifying session that was marked by persistent rain today at Brazilian Interlagos circuit providing Force India with a another big chance of a podium finish in the dying stages of the 2009 F1 season. Who knows? Sutil could climb the top step of the podium and the Indian national anthem playing in the background.

The session, which lasted for over 2.30 hrs, was stopped briefly during Q2 as the other Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi aquaplaned and hit the pitwall during his qualifying lap, ending his chances of seeing the top 10. He will commence his racing tomorrow from 15th place.

On the front row tomorrow will be Rubens Barrichello of Brawn GP and Mark Weber in the Red Bull team.

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After a magnificent 2nd position drive from Fisichella in the last race at SPA, the new lead driver, Adrian Sutil, backed it up with a terrific drive to secure a 4th place finish for Force India at the Italian GP in Monza today.

Sutil could have easily snatched a podium finish if not for a slight mistake during his second pit stop, where he only just, over-shot his parking, losing time as his mechanics had to regroup.

On the same lap, Kimi Raikkonen, who was ahead of him, took advantage of the prevailing situation, and came out ahead from the pitlane to resume his dominance over Sutil for the rest of the race.

A scary crash involving 3rd place man Lewis Hamilton and the guard rail, when pushing hard to catch Brawn’s Button, just corners from the checkered flag, meant the rest of the top 10 upgraded one position, eventually gifting Sutil a stronger 4th place.

If not for the KERS energy recovery system on Raikkonen’s car, that Ferrari could have easily lost track position to Sutil’s Force India very early in the race. Sutil’s progress around the corners was negated in the long straights where Kimi used KERS to good effect keeping Sutil at bay till the very end. The gap separating the two was very little. It hovered around the two second mark for the major portion of the race.

On his debut race with Force India, Vitantonio Liuzzi’s dream run came to a screeching end as he pulled over just before the first corner after a mechanical problem occurred on his car, after several strong laps that promised him a place in the top five. Whether it was a faulty gearbox or engine is not determined, but if he would have continued, it could have been the best performance of a replacement driver in the recent times in Formula 1.

Who won?!

Oh yes, I’ve said this before, and I’m going to say it again – A Brawn GP 1-2, Barrichello followed by Button followed by Kimi Raikkonen enjoyed the champagne and took home the trophies..

1 Rubens Barrichello, Brawn-Mercedes

2 Jenson Button, Brawn-Mercedes

3 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari

4 Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes

5 Fernando Alonso, Renault

6 Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes

7 Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber

8 Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault

9 Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari

10 Kazuki Nakajima, Williams-Toyota

11 Timo Glock, Toyota

12 Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes

13 Sébastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari

14 Jarno Trulli, Toyota

15 Romain Grosjean, Renault

16 Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota

Not classified:

Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India-Mercedes

Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari

Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber

Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault

After the departure of Giancarlo Fisichella, questions on who would take up responsibility as the lead driver in Force India’s camp was answered gracefully by Adrian Sutil as he put fast lap after another to take 2nd position in the Italian GP qualifying.

His team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi, who is the replacement driver for Fisi, was not far behind. He’ll start tomorrow’s race from 7th position, making it the best ever start Force India have recorded in their stint so far with Formula 1.

At the Qualifying press conference -

Lewis Hamilton (in pole) – “Great to see Sutil here in the podium, interesting first corner, in best position to face it..we got KERS for help..hoping to get around the first corner and enjoy the rest of the race.”

Adrian Sutil (2nd position) – “A Great moment, great day..weekend is a success..car’s amazing..so good for the team after the success at SPA, enjoyed single moment, feel very good..”

“Fisichella says he does not have a strong car compared to ours..his dream was realized as he moved to Ferrari..he’s recovered, 14th postion is a strong position..we replaced the seat well with Liuzi..first qualifying session he comes into Q3.”

Kimi Raikonnen (3rd position) – “Tomorrow this (qualifying postion) will get us to do well..”

In this interview published on the Official Force India website, Adrian Sutil, who was in sixth position ahead of reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton at yesterday’s Chinese GP, cherishes a few memories and proves his temperament is solid as rock.

Q: You had a fantastic race in the wet in Monaco last year, and another one here, but sadly both ended in retirement. What are your feelings about today?

‘Our performance was really very good and we should all be very proud of this race. It was a risk to go on one-stop, because I stopped very early. I was very light at the beginning and then under the safety car we went into the pits and just filled it up. We knew it would have been tight on the tyres, but the grip in the corners was enough to stay in a good position, but with the aquaplaning on the straights it was sometimes hard to keep it on the circuit. You never knew what was going to happen because the car went to the left or the right. With six laps to go I hit another patch of water and ended up in the wall. It was very disappointing.’

The title illustrates and communicates my disappointment. It could have been a dream weekend for Vijay Mallya, team owner. His cricket team, the Royal Challengers emerged winners in its inaugural IPL cricket match yesterday and today his Force India car driven by Adrian Sutil in the Shanghai may well have taken sixth place ahead of last year’s world championship contenders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.

But not all days are Fridays as some put it.

Sutil was under constant pressure from Lewis Hamilton, who was fighting hard to regain the position which he lost to Sutil after spinning out a few laps earlier. Sutil lost grip, he was carrying more speed than the car could handle, forcing him to spin out and hit the barrier with 6 laps to the checkered flag. Damage was irreparable.

Force India’s Mercedes-powered 2009 car will be revealed and run for the first time at Jerez in early March, team owner and boss Vijay Mallya said.

“The new car, VJM02, is under construction. It will have a McLaren gearbox and Mercedes engine, which is a big change from VJM01. We are going to unveil it at Jerez in early March,” the Indian billionaire explained in New Delhi.