Friday, May 9, 2008

Force India looking for new Lewis

Vijay Mallya is confident he will one day discover India's answer to Lewis Hamilton.

Force India co-owner Mallya is only six months into his long-term project with the team after investing heavily.

Upon his arrival, Mallya felt experience was required to partner the emerging talent that is Adrian Sutil, and so opted for veteran Italian Giancarlo Fisichella.

That might have felt like a slight on Narain Karthikeyan, who has been making a name for himself in A1GP these past few months with Team India.

But Mallya was eager for his team to embark upon a swift ascent, and felt Fisichella's know-how would serve as the ideal foil to Sutil's burgeoning youth.

However, that does not mean the flamboyant billionaire has given up on discovering an Indian driver to race in his Indian team.

"I respect each and every individual regardless of nationality or class, and in my team I want the best people available," insisted Mallya.

"I've no doubt that in a population of 1.2 billion people we will find a Lewis Hamilton somewhere.

"However, it will take time and experience, and that's why we have Giancarlo Fisichella at the moment.

"But we are willing to invest in finding Indian talent and nurture him or her to the highest levels."

For now, Mallya's primary concern is cracking the secret that has so far eluded the team in qualifying.

Neither Fisichella nor Sutil has managed to make it into the second round in the four grands prix to date this year, in turn compromising their race as they have consistently started in the final six on the gird.

Fisichella at least came close to scoring the team's first point in the last outing in Barcelona 11 days ago, with the 35-year-old finishing 10th.

Mallya knows if Fisichella had been higher placed at the start he would more than likely have claimed a top-eight place come the chequered flag.

Ahead of this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul, Mallya added: "I was disappointed with qualifying (in Spain) after such a strong practice on Friday and Saturday morning.

"Clearly what I'm noticing is that we're not able to get good qualifying pace out of the car, which is our Achilles heel, and we need to investigate that thoroughly.

"If we start a few places up the grid we won't get into traffic or be a little accident prone like we are when starting from the back.

"This is just the start for us, though. Nobody expected us to be as competitive as we are. We've been on the grid for little over five months and look how far we have come.

"We are deploying all resources to improve, and although no-one expects miracles, the fact we finished in the top 12 in Bahrain and Malaysia and top 10 in Spain shows we are a genuine midfield contender now, not a backmarker.

"Of course, the field is incredibly tight, with at least 10 cars within a couple of tenths (of a second) of each other.

"It's a bitter contest now where everything counts, but I am delighted to see we are in that game."

No comments:

Upcoming Cars in India