Force India To Concentrate On 2009 Car

Dr. Vijay Mallya - Force India Owner

High-profile team owner Vijay Mallya says Force India will have a bigger budget for the 2009 season.

The Silverstone based team’s new ownership already pledged more money and resources for its inaugural season this year when it took over the ailing Spyker outfit.

Force India moved closer to the rest of the field in the first half of 2008, but has now shifted its focus to next year.

The last piece of development for the current car will be a seamless gearbox in Hungary.

Mallya said at Hockenheim:

“Beyond that I have decided that we will now concentrate on the 2009 car,”

“We have an increased budget for 2009,”

Mallya added that two new senior engineers have joined the design team.

“We will add as many as we need to,”

“When you have to compete with teams with significantly higher budgets and vast resources you have at least to step up to the plate, otherwise you won’t get anywhere.”

Neal’s View: Long-gone are the days of the independents. Hopefully, Mallya can keep the team running and make them more competitive. They are only 1.8 seconds off pole, on average, and the introduction of a seamless-shift gearbox will reduce this by three tenths. In Mike Gascoyne, Force India have one of the best people for the job.