Mallya: We Need to Improve Qualifying Pace

Although happy with the developments made by Force India throughout the first 5 races this season, Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya reckoned both Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil need to do better in qualifying for a better position inside the race. For the time being, the drivers' behavior in race is completely different as compared to the qualifying (different to be translated into better), and that should be a good place to start, argued Mallya.

“Clearly we have some work to do in qualifying, but I would beg to differ about the lack of improvement in the race. Giancarlo set the 8th quickest time during the race in Spain, and was competitively racing with BMW, Renault and Williams. We might not yet be in a points' scoring position but I am happy with the rate of progress we are making,” said Mallya in a preview for the Monaco GP this week.

Having said that, the Indian businessman reiterated his positive comments on his team's development through 2009, as he reckoned not many teams have been able to keep the pace with the aerodynamic updates in the first 5 rounds of the year. He also announced some new revisions of the VJM02 for the Monaco GP, aimed at getting both drivers (or at least one) into Q2.

“I would say that, for a small team, our rate of development so far has been remarkable. We introduced the new floor and shadow diffuser in Bahrain, plus some major upgrades to the front wing, a further step in Spain and now in Monaco we will have some further changes to the aero package.”

“We've always said top ten for the first part of the year and then points if and when possible. This race I think, with the improvements we have and the confidence of our drivers around this circuit, we could very well get into Q2 – that should be the aim for now,” added Mallya.