Even a couple of years back, only the really inebriated would’ve suggested that there would be an Indian team on the Formula One grid. A few hours from now (or a few hours ago, depending on how early or late you wake up on Sunday mornings) Force India will be screeching off the grid on its debut run at the Melbourne Grand Prix.In 2005, when Narain Karthikeyan became the first Indian driver to grace the pits of this extremely noisy world, it seemed surreal. An Indian-owned Formula One team borders on the ridiculous.It’s the natural progression at one level — satellite television, races on the big screen, F1 clubs (several of them, rather predictably, called ‘Chequered Flag’), F1 driver, F1 team, and an F1 race to host in a couple of years. But the time-frame is spectacularly unsettling. As with most things to do with this sport, it all seems to be happening too fast.It is a historic day, no doubt. But one problem with history in India is that it tends to remember statistics a touch more than sentiments (Is Karthikeyan a success for making it to F1 or a failure because he turned out to be slower than his team mate in the second half of the season?)And statistics, in our number-crazy country, will be only part of the problem the team will face this year.What’s in a name?For starters, why Force India? There’s no Force Italy (they call that Ferrari), no Force Germany, no Force Brazil. The obvious answer is because nationalism sells like nothing else in New India — a country that knows no fear. Unfortunately, it’s also a country that doesn’t react to failure very kindly; a country that will find it very hard to be patriotic when the team is finishing in the bottom four. Worse, what if the cars fail to finish? What if they don’t get off the grid? What happens if the irresistible Force turns out to be an immovable object? Vijay Mallya’s answer is accompanied by a rather emphatic shake of the head. “There are only 11 teams in Formula One. Being here in itself is a privilege,” he says. “This is a team that was finishing last the previous season. We have already made a lot of improvements since then. As the practice timings prove beyond doubt, we are positively a midfield team now.”Hot potatoFor Mallya and Force India, taking one step forward will, to a large extent, involve taking three steps back. Founded by Eddie Jordan in 1991, Jordan F1 took on the reputation of its owner. Apart from being fairly competitive — they finished 18 times on the podium, including four Grand Prix wins — they were a team marked by a flamboyance that has gone missing from the sport over the last few years.In 2006 though, Jordan sold the team to Midland F1 who, after one season, sold it to Spyker. Spyker couldn’t live with finishing at the bottom of the grid either, and were only too happy to let go.The big change this season is the budget — it’s supposed to have gone up from around $75m to about $120m. The team now has three wind tunnel facilities — one they own, one they rent and one is outsourced. The results seem to be showing. While you never know what kind of fuel loads go into the cars, the modestly named VJM01s have made up about two seconds since last season. They are still around two seconds off the pace, but that pace is being set by the Ferraris and the McLarens who, as Mallya himself admits, are on another planet.“There’s no point in trying to compete with them. But it does look like we will be competing more with the midfield teams.“When we bought the team, there was a lot of scepticism in the motorsport community. It already looks like we’ll be fighting with the middle of the pack. And as far as long-term targets go, I’ve said before that I’m looking forward to a podium finish at Delhi in 2010.”What else is new?In a sport where things usually come down to hundredths of a second, two years is a very long time. And it’ll be interesting to watch how things unfold over those two years.Already for 2008, the FIA has banned traction control and the engine braking system — both connected to the introduction of the FIA-provided Electonic Control Unit (ECU). “This season we will aim to be consistent,” Giancarlo Fisichella said. “We’ll look to qualify in the top 15 and, hopefully, start scoring some points towards the end of the year.”And in a continuing effort to bridge the gap between the front-runners and the rest of the field, 2009 will see engine freezes — where teams can’t develop their engines through the season — and some standardised aerodynamics parts.“All teams will practically be starting from scratch,” Mallya says. “That should be fun.” (The writer is in Melbourne as a guest of the Force India F1 team)
