Indian Autos blog

Are you interested in becoming the next Formula1 superstar from India? Want to follow the footsteps of Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok? If yes, the Force India F1 team is searching for you.

Yesterday, Force India Formula 1 team has announced Force India F1 Team Academy – a racing program to identify young racing talent from India.

The racing program plans to provide expert academic and vocational training that is required for a career in motorsport. This includes expertise in race engineering, driving and other and other motorsport personnel.

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’s experience with low budget racing will help in frugal F1 2010

Force India driver Adrian Sutil says preparation for the 2010 season in his camp is looking very good. Force India, which stepped up in the second half of the 2009 season, almost winning a race, is using all the experience gained in the last two years in F1 to make 2010 a profitable one.

Sutil will be out of action in the first test at Valencia. His first brush with the new VJM03 will be at Jerez from February 10-13. The F1 season kicks of with the Bahrain GP on the 14th of March.

Force India has probably been the team working with the least budget. This to Sutil will work wonders in 2010 as other teams need to adapt to competing with low resources. Sutil feels it will take time for others to get used to the reduced budget.

Adrian Sutil, Force India driver -

It feels very good to be a competitive team in F1. The 2009 season was one of the most important seasons for us. We were able to make a name for ourselves in F1 with constantly good performances and a few huge surprises. Now it’s important to continue our good work and try to be even more competitive in 2010.

We will keep a close eye on Force India and Sutil’s whereabouts. Going by Sutil’s statements, 2010 will be Force India’s best year in F1.

Reports in the media insist Force India will put two Indians – Chandok and Jani – in a Formula 1 simulator to assess their driving skill in the coming weeks. It isn’t Chandhok’s first encounter in F1. He briefly tested for Red Bull two years ago.

The Simulator owned by Mclaren, is considered as one the most realistic and sophisticated race car simulators. The current season drivers Liuzzi and Sutil have both spent time in the simulator recently.

Karun Chandhok at present is competing in the GP2 championships with Ocean Racing Technology, while Neel Jani (born to an Indian father) drives in the A1 GP championships for Switzerland.

After Liuzzi’s sizzling performance which was cut short by a mechanical problem, the competition for the job has gotten stiffer. Next year, Force India is very likely to retain its current drivers and register either Jani or Chandhok as the reserve driver.

After going through 29 races without putting up even a single point on the board, Force India did it, and did it in style by registering a podium finish at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix and shocked the F1 world once again with a well fought fourth position in the following race at Monza, Italy.

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

It is Force India’s first ever points in their F1 career, and what a way to bring them in! Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella finished the Belgium Grand Prix less than a second behind race winner Kimi Raikkonen in a dramatic race which even saw Rubens Barrichello’s car on fire moments after after he went past the finish line!

Ok..we’re off for a group happy dance for Fisi and his team.

Force India F1′s boss VIjay Mallya announced the introduction of new aero upgrades and a different diffuser at this weekend’s race in Barcelona. Mallya is sounding confident and the team is looking very promising for a point scoring performance very soon. Read More- World Car Fans

The race at Shanghai last weekend could have had delightful consequences, but wasn’t to be. All Force India has to do now is hope for the best with a set of new changes including an interim diffuser at this weekend’s Bahrain GP.

Both the VJM02 cars will host a new floor and an interim diffuser. The Force India cars will also carry new auxiliary wings on the front wing and reprofiled sidepods to fit the modified rear end.

Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal-

“I think the team’s performance in China was very encouraging. We functioned well as a unit, made the correct calls from the pit wall and showed again that when the conditions allow we can be competitive. Both Adrian and Giancarlo drove phenomenal races and really did the team proud. We know we still have work to do and putting in these performances in every race is still a distant goal, but I feel confident there are good foundations now. It’s a boost for everyone not to lose hope as we can still surprise.”

“As usual, we know points are going to be very difficult to achieve and we should not set this as a goal for Bahrain. Yes, Adrian had a very strong race in China and very nearly achieved our ultimate goal far earlier than anyone could have expected, but we should not look on the Chinese Grand Prix as indicative of our general form. Instead, we need to focus once more on reliability and consistency and look to be there if circumstances allow.”