Force India seek middle path

There was a fair crowd gathered around the Force India pit, staring at the red, white and gold cars. They don’t look quite as intimidating from up-close, especially with the nose and rear wings stripped off.

Both the cockpits are adorned with pictures of Lord Balaji — they do look slightly out of place there, but as owner Vijay Mallya says, “I don’t embark on any project without first visiting Tirupathi.”

What really seemed to have made a difference though, were a few aerodynamic parts that came in after the Barcelona tests, most notable being a slick new set of rear-view mirrors that have, as chief technical director Mike Gascoyne said, given them two-tenths of a second.

Q2 hopes

“We had a few mechanical problems with Tonio’s (test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi) car in the first session, but overall, it was an exceptional first day out,” Gascoyne said. “After today’s performance, I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t make it to Q2 tomorrow,” he added. “It was a good challenge today and things look quite promising,” Fisichella said. “We made a big step forward over the winter. We know we still have a lot of work to do, but it’s a good start.”

However, it isn’t time to go gaga just yet. As both Mallya and Team Principal Colin Kolles pointed out, qualifying is going to be a very different ball game. “You can never tell from free practice, generally no one shows all their cards on Fridays, especially on the first weekend of the season. I’m sure we can go a bit faster than we did today, but I think a lot of other teams will also go quicker,” Kolles said.

And while ninth place looks good, they are still about two to three seconds slower than pace-setters Ferrari and McLaren.

What they do have going for them is the buzz that’s going around. Mallya has targeted the 2010 season for a podium finish, but Gascoyne feels he might be able to turn it on quicker than that. “Before I joined Spyker, the longest I took to put a team on the podium was the Toyota in 1999 — I think that took 19 races. I think Mr Mallya will get his wish a little sooner than he wants.”

No one will be complaining if that does happen. It’s better not to get your hopes too high though.