Almost, but not quite

Favourite Giancarlo Fisichella moment: The Italian is celebrating on his yellow Jordan after winning a rain-soaked 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Favourite Giancarlo Fisichella moment: The Italian is celebrating on his yellow Jordan after winning a rain-soaked 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix. As he jumps off the car 8212; flailing arms and pumping fists all part of manic festivity 8212; the rickety Jordan and it was fairly rickety that year bursts into flames. Fisichella, though, keeps going as if nothing8217;s happened.

That celebration was as much about joy as relief, sparked as much by the thrill of winning as the frustration of having been on the grid since 1996 without making it to the top step of the podium incidentally, he didn8217;t make it to the top step then either, the FIA awarding the race to Kimi Raikkonen on a shortened race rule before giving it back to Fisichella a couple of weeks later.

Until then, he had always been known as a talented driver who never realised his potential. Unfortunately, it8217;s been that way since then as well.

He qualified 17th on Saturday, with team mate Adrian Sutil two spots behind 8212; both drivers unable to make it to the second qualifying segment.

8220;It is a bit disappointing after the kind of weekend we8217;ve had, but I8217;m not terribly upset,8221; he said. After all, it is only a small setback in what has been a long, up-and-down career.

Frustrations

Fisichella made his debut in 1996 for Minardi but didn8217;t complete the season due to a lack of sponsors.

In 1997, he made the switch to Jordan, where he finished higher than team mate Ralf Schumacher in the final standings.

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In three years at Benetton, from 1998-2001, he consistently outperformed his team mates 8212; Alex Wurz initially and Jenson Button later. His victory in Brazil for Jordan, where he spent two years, seemed to have changed that, as he sealed a drive with Sauber and then Renault.

While his career had been consistent without being spectacular until then, it was at Renault that things started going really bad. He won the Australian Grand Prix in 2005 8212; his first race with Flavio Briatore8217;s outfit 8212; but that didn8217;t quite turn out to be the new dawn that it was made out to be. A series of poor results after that made him a firm number two to Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the championship two years running before moving to McLaren for the 2007 season. Fisichella was dumped by Briatore to make way for Alonso8217;s comeback, and it appeared as if he would be saying goodbye to Formula One.

8220;You can say that it8217;s disappointing just three race wins in his career,8221; Fisichella said. 8220;But another way to look at it is that it isn8217;t very easy to stay in Formula One for 12 years in a row. So I8217;m happy about that.8221;

Force field

Which is why it didn8217;t seem like a very clever move when Vijay Mallya took the Italian on board to lead Force India8217;s challenge. The initial years hadn8217;t been kind to him, but the three seasons at Renault had surely killed his spirit. The flip side, as it seems to have turned out, is that he8217;s hungry and angry, keen to prove a lot of people 8212; including himself perhaps 8212; wrong.

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8220;It is different, being in a small team which was in the last row all of last season. But they have a good plan, and better budgets. I8217;m excited about trying to pick up a team from the bottom of the grid and try to move up. There is less pressure in a smaller team than there is on the big ones.8221;

Team principal Colin Kolles agrees. 8220;What he brings to the table is the experience of having worked in championship-winning sides before,8221; he says. 8220;He knows what it takes to win.8221;