Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Mallya challenges Force India to stay in touch with rivals

Vijay Mallya has challenged Force India to stay in touch with the teams ahead of it in the constructors' championship over the upcoming races.

Force India has started the season with an underdeveloped car having missed the majority of pre-season with its 2015 effort, and is targeting a major upgrade in Austria. While the team has scored points in two of the opening four rounds, the Spanish Grand Prix is set to be a tough weekend as its rivals bring updates to their cars and team principal Mallya doesn't want to be cut adrift in the standings.

“It’s fair to say that we’ve had mixed fortunes during the opening four races," Mallya said. "On the positive side, we’ve scored points in half the races and I’ve been impressed by the fighting spirit of the team. On the other hand, we know the VJM08 is not where we want it to be and that we need to work hard to unlock more of its potential.

“It’s still early days in the season, but it’s worth noting how closely-matched the midfield teams remain. There are times when we see up to ten cars within half a second of each other, which means that any improvements we can bring to the car will have a big impact on our results.

“Our pace has been improving with each race, but we will need to wait a little longer before we can make a big step. I’m optimistic about the updates we have planned and we are working hard to get them to the track as soon as possible. The priority over the next few races is to stay in touch with the teams around us. As it stands, fourth place in the championship is just 12 points ahead of us, so we need to keep fighting hard and picking up points when we can.”

Force India is currently eighth in the constructors' championship with 11 points, sitting one point behind both Lotus and Toro Rosso, eight points behind Sauber and 12 away from Red Bull in fourth.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.