A detailed look on rising Force India F1 team – Formula 1
Force India is a Formula 1 team which have foundation in Silverstone, United Kingdom and have Indian backing. The team is owned by Vijay Mallya, started the first season in 2008 and have emerged as one of the most competitive new teams in the recent years.
In 2007, former Spyker team was bought and renamed Force India for the season in the following year, by a conglomerate which was being headed by the India billionaire, Mallya.
Force India started the first season in 2008 but failed to score any point regardless of some impressive improvements in the pace of the car during the season. Post-season announcement of restructuring of management was made with the co-owner, Mallya being
taking over as the team principal while new technical changes were made.
In 2009, the team made some spectacular improvements regarding the enhancement of the pace with in-season upgrades, regardless of the deficiency of the basic downforce of the new car VJM02. Giancarlo Fisichella made the step forward for the team and scored
the team’s first pole, points and the podium at the Belgium Grand Prix. Moreover, he went to Ferrari afterwards to replace Felipe Massa who was injured and handed over his seat to the test driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi.
In 2010, Force India remained successful in maintaining the momentum of the last season and emerged as normal Q3 and points rivals but afterwards they became lighter during the middle of the season as the other midfield contenders such as BMW Sauber and
Williams were successful in closing the gaps. Nevertheless, they ended at seventh position in the constructors’ championship.
In 2011, regardless of fast and steady drivers, Adrian Sutil and remarkable Paul di Resta, the team failed to make the significant progress as compared the preceding year during the first half of the season. Moreover, they found the pace after the end of
summer during the season and scored points at most of the races which included the finishing at sixth-place for three times.
The team have di Resta and Sutil with their retained driver of the last season, Nico Hulkenberg for the forthcoming season. Moreover, Force India have performed reasonably well during the pre-season tests.
Hulkenberg set the fourth fastest lap time during the day four of the second test held at Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona which ended as one of the strongest day for the team during the testing sessions. Furthermore, he was successful in making up the time
which was lost during the initial days of the week because of driveline issues.
However, he could not be able to run a full race simulation at the end of the afternoon session on the fourth day of the second test. Moreover, he remained in front of the Japanese driver, Kamui Kobayashi with his best lap time which was being set on the
supersoft tyres.
There have been a lot of discussions and talks concerning the designs of the cars, especially of the top teams, for the upcoming 2012 F1 season going to be started at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia while Force India standing on one side have emerged
as quite a competent team for the future of F1. Furthermore, at present there has not been much comparison of the team with the top contenders. Nevertheless, the time will tell how well they perform in the forthcoming season.
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