Renamed ever so slightly this year as Sahara Force India, Dr Vijay Mallya's outfit have been rising up the F1 grid at a steady pace over the past few years. In this preview I will ask the question whether they can go any further or whether they have found their place.
In the 2012 season they will be continuing with the impressive and promising Paul Di Resta, and someone who I rated a couple of years ago when he raced for Williams, Nico Hulkenberg. Williams let Nico go following a pole position at Interlagos, but I won't go into that right now, see my Williams preview to figure out my silence in that madness.
Force India, however saw the potential in Nico and took him on as reserve for 2011. I personally was happy to see him still in the fold, I really didn't want him to be another talent that we never saw again in Formula One. During this season they must have seen something in Nico (I suppose like a lot of us did), as they've done away with the experienced Adrian Sutil.
Last season was a bit hit and miss for Force India. They had some great results, especially with Paul Di Resta, who more often than not out-performed his team mate. I don't know about you guys reading this, but did it seem that on some occasions, when we all said what a great race Paul had, he would sometimes look disappointed? Or was that just me? For me that spoke volumes, because it was obvious that Paul knew how good the technicians and other talent at Force India were, yet they deserved more out of their car on occasions. I believe it was a very good car with potential but some upgrades didn't seem to work well for them. I suppose only the lads at Force India can confirm that.
On their day, Force India can and do compete with the front runners, the question is, what's in store for 2012? Well, they have two, what I would class as world champions in the making. To realise that ambition though they'll have to have some luck as well as talent. I think we'll see Force India in the points on a regular basis again, only this time i think they'll make another step up in class and it'll be Lotus Renault who'll be doing the chasing, I'll speak more about that in the Lotus preview. There'll be many people out there who will scoff at my prediction at this point, but there is a very valid reason why I believe this. I'd ask that you reserve judgement until all my previews are complete, thanks, that's very kind of you. I believe another step up the final championship table is on the cards in 2012, but then they reach the Premier League of Formula One and the question is will they be able to consistently beat the top 4? Well, that's a question for another year isn't it?
2011 Position - 6th
2012 Predicted Position 5th
Conclusion - Another great year for Force India. I don't believe it's a time of consolidation, I believe they have the team at the factory, the team at the track and the team of drivers to do pretty well. Dr Vijay Mallya will be a happy man in 2012 I think. Paul Di Resta will have an even better year and Nico Hulkenberg will be up to speed pretty quickly. It's points, points and more points in 2012 for Sahara Force India.
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