Vijay Mallya expects McLaren to be tough in the second half – Formula 1 news
Vijay Mallya believes that McLaren will be stronger in the second half of the season, thus it will be difficult for Force India to stay ahead in the championship.
According to the latter team’s boss, “I think the first nine races have probably exceeded the expectations we set ourselves over the winter. The first mission was to start the year well and that’s what we’ve done. In fact, it’s been our best start to a season ever: we’ve shown good pace and had some excellent races.”
He went onto say, “I would expect the remainder of the season to be more competitive than the first half of the year. We’ve seen the progress of McLaren, especially in Germany, and it’s clear [that] we have a big fight on our hands to beat them in the remaining races.”
Regardless of what the result comes at the end of the season, Mallya said that he was proud of what the team did this season. He claimed that this year’s challenger was best compared to the previous seasons, which has enabled the drivers Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta to score points on a regular basis.
The most impressive thing about Force India this year has been the fact that they have managed to perform better than a top team like McLaren, which has got quite a lot of resources and has the ability to develop the car strongly, as the season goes on.
Despite that, the Silverstone based squad has been able to stay in fifth position, which is quite a big achievement. Although Mallya expected to be the sixth best team this year, he has been surprised to see the progress made by the engineers over the winter. He will be hoping that the positive trend continues, so that Force India can finish in the top-five for the first time.
On the other hand, McLaren showed some clear improvement during the previous race in Germany, which would have given them some hope to become the best team in the midfield. It will be difficult for them to catch the front runners, but they certainly have a chance of claiming the fifth spot in the championship.
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