Breaking news
Formula 1
Mallya confident despite Force India “delays and challenges”
Team hopes that reliable testing performance is a pointer towards a strong display in Melbourne this weekend.
Edited: Mar 9, 2015, 7:37 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Force India team boss Vijay Mallya is upbeat about the squad’s prospects for 2015 despite the financial squeeze that the team has faced over the winter.
The new Mercedes-powered VJM08 appeared late after the team struggled to pay suppliers in order to assemble its car on time for the opening pre-season tests.
“It’s no secret that we have faced some delays and challenges over the winter, but we’ve put that behind us and can now focus on the racing,” said Mallya. “When the VJM08 appeared in Barcelona it ran reliably from the very first moment and didn’t miss a beat during its 365 laps.
"To deliver such a solid performance out of the box was a fantastic achievement from everyone in the team and will stand us in good stead for the first race."
The team hopes that the continuity of drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, plus the experience gained with the Mercedes engine last year, will keep it towards the first half of the grid.
“As for our hopes in Melbourne, it’s difficult to make a prediction," added Mallya. "In terms of mileage we are clearly behind the other teams so there is some ground to make up. Equally, the performance work we could do in Barcelona was quite limited.
“Until we run in qualifying trim and race conditions it’s hard to know where we are in terms of competitiveness. What I do know is that we will give it our best shot to come away with a result.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Mercedes eager to let battle commence in Australia
Next article Pirelli: Soft and medium P Zero compounds for first GP of 2015 season
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Nico Hulkenberg
“Am I confident? Probably not” – The unprecedented challenge Singapore is throwing at F1 drivers
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
“Am I confident? Probably not” – The unprecedented challenge Singapore is throwing at F1 drivers
“They build the best engines” – Audi F1 drivers reveal biggest limitation and how to address it
Formula 1
Formula 1
Singapore GP
“They build the best engines” – Audi F1 drivers reveal biggest limitation and how to address it
Latest news
NASCAR Truck Series championship down to two with two to go
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck 8 min
NASCAR Truck Series championship down to two with two to go
MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez recovers from crash to take pole at wet Phillip Island
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
1 h
MotoGP Australian GP: Marc Marquez recovers from crash to take pole at wet Phillip Island
No factory Honda bikes in Australian GP as Luca Marini withdraws due to virus
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
2 h
No factory Honda bikes in Australian GP as Luca Marini withdraws due to virus
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe