Force India had a dream race at the Belgian Grand Prix last year with their first-ever pole, podium and championship points but the F1 team says it will be difficult to repeat the marvellous 2009 show when the second part of the season begins here on Sunday.
Giancarlo Fisichella, now a Ferrari test driver, had then secured Force India’s first-ever pole and finished second to earn first championship points for the team.
But team owner Vijay Mallya and main driver Adrian Sutil say past is past although they may take inspiration from the historic race for them.
“It’s going to be tough to replicate the kind of form we showed in Spa last year: everybody’s improved, the competition is fierce and also very even in the midfield — the gaps between teams are so small now,” Mallya said.
The low downforce track here is suitable for Force India cars and their drivers’ style but Mallya said his team has proved that they are competent on all tracks.
“We have also shown that we have been regularly able to score points on virtually all the tracks, not just the low downforce ones — apart from the last two races, which were unlucky in various regards, we’ve been in the points at a variety of track configurations,” Mallya said.
The second part of the season will begin after a four-week break and Sutil is confident of returning to points having missed those on the previous two occasions.
“Of course last year the team had a dream result at Spa, with the pole and then the podium, so we’ll go back there with confidence knowing that this has been historically a track we’ve performed very well on.
“But this is 2010 and we have to look at what we are doing now rather than to the past. I’m pretty confident that we’ve got a car that will still suit the track very well.
“We’ve still got a very strong straight line speed advantage and the F-duct makes us quickest through the speed traps at most circuits we go to — which will help us on the long straights in Belgium,” Sutil said.
The other driver Vitantonio Liuzzi is also confident of a good show.
“I think we are still capable of a top position and certainly points this year. We will bring our blown diffuser in for further testing and I’ll run it on Friday for the first time. Plus we will also have a low downforce package with a new rear wing for Spa and Monza so it will be very interesting to see how everything performs,” Liuzzi said.
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