Thursday, March 5, 2009

Force India in 2009

New McLaren (Applied Technologies) partnership, new technical people at the helm, a shuffled management structure…Force India is showing itself to be a serious aspirant indeed. Although I’m not really sure if all the changes made are going to give the expected effects, I’m happy that Vijay Mallya is very serious about his team’s performance. The testing times seem to be a bit promising but, as always, it’s not the best idea to read into it too much as testing is just that, testing. What intrigues me much, however, is Mallya’s claim that the team’s ex-technical director, Mike Gascoyne, didn’t fit into the team well. Here is the man who played a big role in transforming Renault into sharp-end runners and worked his talents to good effect in getting Toyota to its heights in 2005. Could the management have done anything different to better use the talents of Gascoyne to its own good? I don’t know, but that’s one question that keeps popping in my mind.

Anyway, to me the new livery looks better than the previous one—the old one was far from being ugly but saffron looks better to my eyes; a change for the better! I know it’s a new team and all that but still I wish Force India put some more efforts into polishing the details. For example, Mallya’s suit—as worn by him in the recent FOTA meeting—has a not-so-painstakingly-designed Force India logo embroidered. It just doesn’t sit well with me at all. Their Web site design could also be a lot better. It just doesn’t give the polished feel that I get from McLaren’s or BMW’s Web sites. If you ask me then, they have to put even more efforts into the intangibles as well. All said, I don’t expect them to be doing everything better from the word go. I’d be satisfied if they show improvements moving forward. 

But nothing can take away the fact that I cheer big time for the team. They have all my wishes with them for a better new season. Forza Force India!

More Information: VJM02 Photos | VJM01 Photos | Mallya Interview

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I'm sure Force India will take ages to reach the podium. I strongly recommend Narain Karthikeyan to switch to F1 from the run-of-the-mill A1 gp and prove his mettle. BTW, I like the car's livery. It's simple yet attractive. I wish Force India a successful racing season :-)

S R I R A M said...

Did you get a chance to read Mallya's interview some time ago where he mentions that he's not interested in hiring Narain? I guess there's some sort of a family/political issue between the two.

Anonymous said...

Hell with the issues man. These are common in sports. Everything's in the way people handle them.