Mallya hails 'tremendous achievement' by Force India

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Force India owner Dr Vijay Mallya could hardly be happier with how his team is faring so far in 2017.

After the first five races the current season, Force India are in a strong fourth place in the constructors championship. They're under 20 points away from overhauling Red Bull and breaking into the 'Big Three'.

"I’m very pleased with our performance over the first quarter of the year," said Mallya ahead of this week's Monaco Grand Prix.

"53 points from five races is a tremendous achievement," he added. "I’m proud to see Sahara Force India strengthen its fourth place in the championship.

"There is a great atmosphere in the team at the moment and plenty of determination."

Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon have both finished in the points in every race so far this season. Perez' best result was fourth last time out in Barcelona, while Ocon started the year with three back-to-back tenth places.

Red Bull and Force India not on-track rivals

While not always a match for its rivals in terms of race pace, the Force India drivers have made the most of reliability and staying out of trouble. It's allowed them to benefit from the misfortunes of those ahead of them on the grid.

"We simply need to keep up our consistency and pick up points at every race," agreed Mallya.

However, he said that it wasn't just good luck, and the team is getting the success it deserves after a lot of hard work over the winter.

"The VJM10 has improved race by race," he insisted. "We’ve continued to develop and we are performing well across some very different tracks."

There's no track on the Formula calendar more different than Monaco. Last year, Perez made it onto the podium - and Mallya is aiming for the same success in 2017.

"Monaco this week is always a special case with its unique layout," he said. "Our podium in Monaco last year was a special moment and those memories are still strong."

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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.