Vijay Mallya says Force India is “very optimistic” about the potential of its big aerodynamic upgrade to be introduced from next week’s European Grand Prix, with the team hopeful it can propel it towards the top 10.
Although it went into the summer break on the back of a disappointing race in Hungary last month, the Silverstone-based squad had been showing consistently upwardly-mobile form in the previous races with its cars finally having the speed to get out Q1 in qualifying.
But with the team still needing further steps forward if it is to score its first points finish before the end of the season, a further aerodynamic update of its VJM02 is planned for Valencia ahead of more improvements over the following races.
Mallya admits he is looking forward to the latest package’s introduction and is confident it will at least establish the team firmly as Q2 runners for the remainder of the year.
“We have a big aerodynamic upgrade coming for Valencia, and we’re looking forward to that very optimistically,” he told the team’s website.
“Hopefully it will show through in track performance.
“If everything works the way we hope it will work, we should definitely be Q2, maybe even the top of Q2 in Valencia and beyond.
“’I’m quite optimistic, but it’s not good to be too optimistic in this sport. But we’re getting there.
“We’re also working on more upgrades for the final races of the season so fingers crossed we should be able to maintain our momentum.”
The Indian business mogul, however, stresses the team can take nothing for granted given the competitiveness of the grid this year and says it must keep pushing development to stay ahead of its rivals’ own programmes.
“Having said that, given how competitive the sport is, given the fact that every team is improving and introducing their own updates all the time, we have to stay ahead of the game,” he added.
“That’s really what we have to do.”
Force India is currently the only team yet to score a point in 2009, with Mallya’s outfit still seeking its first top eight finish since the Silverstone-based squad was rebranded as Force India from the start of the 2008 season.
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