Giancarlo Fisichella feels that Force India could be the surprise package in this year's Formula One Championship.
Incidentally, former Red Bull driver David Coulthard, now an F1 pundit, had a similar hunch about the Silverstone-based outfit following its tie-up with McLaren-Mercedes late last year.
Fisichella believes the slew of sweeping changes has, to a large extent, evened out some of the glaring F1 inequalities and insists Coulthard didn't merely talk through his hat.
"Why not? I think this year is a good opportunity for us as a team," Fisichella told PTI on the eve of Force India's new challenger VJM02's official track debut at Jerez, Spain on Sunday.
"Everyone has had to redesign their cars, so if you had a good car last year you might not have a good one this year. We're all a lot more equal this year and with a good overall package I think we could be strong once we've had a few races," he said.
The late unveiling of VJM02, however, limits the outfit's testing opportunities and the lack of laps doesn't amuse the Italian. "It is a disadvantage as it's important to drive as much as you can before the start of the year to get a feeling with the car and try and establish a good set-up," said the 36-year-old Roman.
"It's not easy in just four days, especially with the new rules coming in this year. We are just going to have to try and get as much as we can from these eight days before the season," he added.
A veteran of 200-plus F1 races, Fisichella reckons slick tyre, reduced role of aerodynamics and other changes would mix things up this season and negotiating corners would be the key for the drivers.
"F1 was very tight last year, with the whole field separated by just over a second, so it will be hard to be that close this year. But I do think that the field will be a lot more mixed -- we don't know who has got it right as the rules are so different and teams have all interpreted them differently.
"I think this year we will have to be very smooth. The cars will have less grip from the aero, but more grip from the tyres so you will have to be very smooth through the corners. If you get it wrong then you might go off more easily than last year," he explained.
Force India came close to scoring its maiden point a couple of times last year only to fall short of it. Asked how difficult it was to go through an entire season without points, Fisichella said it is now a thing of past for him. "I love Formula One so it's not hard to stay motivated as I love driving the cars and still want to do well. There are always challenges in motorsport, but you have to keep looking to the next opportunity and not think too much about the past," he said.
Instead, Fisichella is rather keen to look at this year's Championship.
"I think this year is maybe the biggest change for many years, with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), slick tyres, downforce and new aero rules, so it's very exciting. It would be good to see all the teams mixed up and to be able to fight for points," he said.
Friday, February 27, 2009
"Force India can surprise"
US team plans to enter F1 in 2010
The founders of a proposed Formula One team from the United States insist they are ready to enter the sport in 2010.
Peter Windsor and Ken Anderson, the duo behind the scheme, have said the cars will be built in North Carolina and driven by American drivers.
They also confirmed they have finance in place and that F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has given them his backing.
"I told Bernie Ecclestone about this in Brazil 2006, and he just said, 'great, get it done'," Windsor told Autosport.
"He has kept in touch ever since and has always been supportive."
Windsor, a journalist and television presenter, is a former Williams team manager and will assume the role of sporting director while Anderson has many years of experience in both F1 and Indy Car as a race engineer. The current global economic crisis has forced many teams into cost cutting measures ahead of the new season on 29 March, while struggling Honda are still looking to find a buyer.
Despite this USF1 will not be be backed by a manufacturer or wealthy businessman, with Windsor saying they have put together a viable business plan that will work.
"If you look at the way it's gone in the recent past, it's been either you find a rich trillionaire and have him dominate, or you are lucky enough to be invited by a large car company to set up their F1 operation," he said.
"Ken and I have been around long enough to know we didn't want to do those things.
"We always wanted to do our own team our way. We have got some things we want to bring in.
"The key was not to selling anything more than a very small stake in the team.
"We set ourselves some unbelievably steep hills to climb in a recession, but we only wanted to sell a small part of the team, and, as we sit here now, I'm pleased to say we've done that and we're now two guys that can say we are going to do an F1 team because we have the capital to do it." F1 has a rich history in north America and can boast two former world champions in Phil Hill and Mario Andretti.
However, races in America and Canada have recently been taken off the calendar and there are currently no US or Canadian drivers competing in the sport.
Danica Patrick, the first woman to compete in the Indy Car series in the US, has been linked with a seat with the new team as have former Torro Rosso driver Scott Speed, and Andretti's grandson 21-year-old Marco.
Anderson has admitted that Patrick would be an attractive proposition for USF1 and is keen to see if the 26-year-old would fancy becoming the sixth female F1 driver.
"Danica's great - she gets a lot of press," he said.
"IndyCar Series boss Tony George would probably be pretty mad with me if I took her out of the IRL (Indy Racing League), but we'll see.
"I don't know if it's something she wants to do. We'd certainly love to test her and go from there."