11/01/2008
NEWS STORY
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Force India (co-)owner Vijay Mallya, mindful of his team's chequered history - having risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes of Jordan, Midland and Spyker - has urged for caution and realistic expectations.
"I do not for a minute underestimate the challenges before me and my team," he said at a press conference in Mumbai. "I have said that we will not produce any miracles in 2008, but we will certainly demonstrate to the world that Force India is going firmly in the right direction up the grid."
In addition to revealing his driver line-up for 2008, Mallya announced that Force India's budget for 2008 will be $120m, compared to the $70m available to Spyker in 2007.
In a country where prosperity is on the rise (at least for some), Mallya recognises that F1 has a prosperous future, just as Bernie Ecclestone predicted in China and other booming economies in the east. In addition to 'creating' an Indian F1 team, Mallya has been instrumental in bringing an F1 race to India, and he makes no secret of the fact that his dream is to see one of his own score points in its 'home' race.
"My objective is by 2010, when India will host their first-ever Grand Prix, that Force India will rightfully occupy a place in the podium," he said, adding; "That doesn't mean we can't get to the podium earlier."
Asked why he hadn't signed an Indian driver, the most obvious example being Narain Karthikeyan, Mallya replied: "I had to choose the drivers very, very carefully because here is a team that also needs to learn. The engineering team needs to benefit from the inputs of the drivers. In that purpose no Indian driver fitted the bill." That said, he admitted that he has his eye on Karthikeyan, who last year scored his country's first win in A1 GP, and also Karun Chandhok, who he "looks on as a son". Chandhok, who won the GP2 event at Spa last year, tested for Red Bull at Barcelona in November.
Sitting alongside his three drivers (Fisichella, Sutil and Liuzzi), who were all wearing (fairly) traditional Indian costumes, Mallya made his intentions for the team quite clear: "We understand India is a big country, we understand the name of the team is Force India and that there is going to be many, many Indians closely watching the performance of this team.
"And to them we owe our best efforts and our best performance. There is not going to be any compromise whatsoever. But expectation levels also need to be reasonable and practical."