Force India
F1 team owner Dr Vijay Mallya has hinted that his squad will feature an unchanged line-up next season, as it attempts to finally overcome the handicap its began life with and become at least a midfield challenger.
Speaking in an interview with the official
Formula One website, Mallya said that both
Giancarlo Fisichella and
Adrian Sutil have attributes that make them valuable to the Silverstone-based team, despite test and reserve pilot Tonio Liuzzi having turned in solid performances on his mid-week outings in the VJM01.
"I have two good drivers and you must understand that, for
Force India, my needs are somewhat unique," Mallya insisted, "The experience of Giancarlo is invaluable to me and Adrian has lots of talent. I think he is improving race by race, becoming more consistent, so I am quite happy with them.
"More importantly, they have a great attitude that will help me to face the challenges of tomorrow and I think they will be very satisfied driving the 2009 car, which I personally am sure will be a significant improvement - and a big surprise."
With Fisichella retiring in five races so far this season, and Sutil failing to see the chequered flag in seven of his eleven outings, Force India has yet the trouble the scorers - the only team to do so - but Mallya remains phlegmatic as he heads towards the final phase of his first year as an F1 team owner.
"I will use the time [between Budapest and Valencia] to really reflect on what we have achieved in the first half of the season," he noted, "It is very clear that, in the early part of the season, we made good progress compared to other teams and then we slowed down a little, because maybe other teams made more progress than us.
