Vijay Mallya Q&A
Hungary is the last race before a three-week break. Will you be looking for a good result to give the team confidence for the second part of the season?
"Of course, we need to keep the momentum going we developed in Germany with the two car finish. We will also be running the seamless shift gearbox in Friday practice, so I think we have to use this as an opportunity to see how it performs in pressurized conditions, then go back to Silverstone, look at the findings and improve for the second part. We need to be reliable and consistent, and continue to progress as we have done with the aerodynamic improvements."
We're now at the mid-season 'break' so to speak. How would you review your first half of a season as a team owner?
"It's been every bit as good and as frustrating as I expected it to be. I'm very proud of what this small team has achieved, and how we are pulling together to show some good progress and showings that no one in the field expected us to do. On the other hand there have been challenges, as I knew there would be, and disappointments, but the good far outweighs the bad.
I have no regrets at all about becoming involved in the team, and am really looking forward to the second part of the year."
Have you been satisfied with the progress the team has made?
"Let's look at the hard facts. We've had a 12th placed finish and a 10th placed finish. We've had double finishes and very competitive races – just look at Monaco. We've raced with teams whose budgets are twice as much as ours, with manufacturer support, and we've finished ahead of them. You can't take this away from us."
"What I am really pleased about however is the progress that we have made in the times relative to others. I can honestly say that we are the most improved team on the grid: last year we were four seconds off the front and two seconds from the rear of the field; in Germany 2008 we were just one second from the top five. No other team has found two seconds from last year, so clearly this is a reason to be satisfied."