Force India: "We must maintain this level of performance"

Force India will be busy this weekend in Turkey for the fifth round of the Formula 1 season. After the good result obtained in Spain, the team hopes to remain at these levels for the rest of the season.

Dr. Vijay Mallya, chairman and managing director:

“We couldn't ask for a better result than entering the top 10. We've been in this sport for five months and what we did in Barcelona is confirmation that we are making progress. We must not underestimate this achievement; this team has improved compared to the past, when the top 12 was a rarity.

To try to confirm the good performance of the Spanish GP, we need to improve in qualifying: in this way, starting from a better position, we can better exploit the potential of the car. in Barcelona we showed that we were fast in free practice, but we weren't able to repeat ourselves in qualifying. But I am convinced that we will be able to discover the reason.

Once again, Giancarlo (Fisichella) had an excellent race and this shows that we made the right choice by signing him. Adrian (Sutil) was very unlucky, but I'm sure that luck will turn for him too; he's talented, he's fast and I think he can do a great job with us. We must not forget that Giancarlo is approaching his 200th career Grand Prix; Adrian has just over twenty races under his belt, a tenth of his teammate. However, I believe that we have a competitive pair, which is confirming our expectations."

Colin Kolles, team principal:

"Unfortunately we had difficult qualifying sessions in Barcelona, ​​in which we were unable to match the pace of free practice. In the race we took a step forward: Giancarlo pushed the car to the limit, giving Force India an excellent result. We are getting closer to the points zone. In Turkey we hope that both drivers will be able to finish the race and show the progress made by the team."

Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer:

“Turkey is an exciting circuit, especially turn eight, which is high speed and very demanding. The VJM01 is very competitive in fast corners, as demonstrated by the times recorded in Barcelona in the first sector, the fastest part of the circuit; so I think the car will perform well in Istanbul too. We won't bring anything new to Turkey: the specifications of the car will be the same as those in Barcelona. We are now focusing on development for Monaco and Canada, where we will have dedicated packages for those tracks.

What emerged in Barcelona is the lack of competitiveness in qualifying. On Saturday we were unable to repeat the free practice times, despite the track conditions being significantly better. In Turkey we must not repeat the same mistakes: we have identified some areas where we can improve. Our goal is to get into Q2 and bring both cars to the finish line in the race. Giancralo (Fisichella)'s result showed that we are able to keep up with our opponents and gain some points.”

Giancarlo Fisichella:

“The results obtained so far have exceeded our expectations: apart from Australia, we have finished every race in the top 12. We are a young team but we are increasingly confident in ourselves. The balance of the car in Spain was good and the second stint of the race was very encouraging. We need to improve in qualifying, where we suffer a lot from the lack of grip. We spent a lot of time understanding the reason for this drop in performance from free practice to qualifying and I hope we don't have the same problems in Turkey. At the moment the gap between the opponents is so narrow that even a tenth can lead to elimination, so we need to make sure we are ready."

“I like the Istanbul circuit: I have achieved good results here, including a fourth place in 2005. It is a very demanding circuit, with some high-speed corners that are fun but at the same time difficult to interpret. It will be a tough race but we have to push as much as possible. The car is reliable and if we manage to do some good qualifying, we can repeat the result of Barcelona and maybe score some points."

Adrian Sutil:

"The objective in Turkey is to finish the race with a good result. So far I have had to deal with technical problems and some accidents. I have always said that the real season starts from the Barcelona Grand Prix; from the point of view of the I was satisfied with the performance but unfortunately I had a lot of bad luck in the race.
Last year I had a good race in Turkey, despite retiring on the last lap. It's a very fun circuit: this year we'll race a few months earlier, so we shouldn't have too many problems related to the heat. I can't wait for the Grand Prix to start and I hope I don't have any difficulties during the weekend. I think the rest of my season will be better, hopefully starting from Turkey."