BBC World Service interview with Dr Vijay Mallya

I think it’s fair to say that last season you probably made more progress on the grid than any other team and and yet sadly you spent most of the time at the back of the grid. How would you look back on the season? Was is it successful as far as you are concerned?
It was very successful. I had hoped that we would do a bit better and maybe get lucky enough to score some points. We came pretty close to scoring some points and of course didn’t have the luck with the race. One of the events that sticks out in my mind all the time was when Adrian was running fourth in the Monaco Grand Prix and got hit from behind by Kimi, but that is motor racing. Yes we did progress, we did improve our times quite considerably. Spyker was way off the pace, but I think one really has to also appreciate that the 2008 season was hugely competitive and tenths of a second were separating four or five cars. You see the difference between the winner of the race and even the last car and the gap was less than a second and a half, so in that hugely competitive environment, I think we did pretty well.

Did it surprise you how competitive the 2008 season was?
When we started as Force India at the beginning of the season I had to say that we were quite pleased with the progress we made, we were midfield until we got to Europe and then suddenly it looked as if other people had progressed more than we had. We have had some midfield finishes, we didn’t finish the race on occasion, but all in all I think it was a great learning experience and sets us up properly for 2009.

How did you deal with that moment in Monaco?
It was an emotional shock when it actually happened and we were all glued to the television screens on the pit wall and the adrenaline was running very high. There were only about 10 laps to go and we were really hoping to score some points and then this event happened. Of course at the moment it was a big emotional shock, but when you look back it is motor racing after all.

Still friends with Kimi?!
Yes absolutely. It was not deliberate, those things do happen and we write it off as a racing incident and that we just didn’t have the luck of the race.

You’ve had your first season, and quite successful and also quite difficult, but you have made some difficult decisions towards the end of the season in terms of management changes and now the link-up with with McLaren Mercedes. How this would affect Force India for next season?
You know we did not have a seamless shift gearbox, we had to develop one in a hurry. It only came to us halfway through the season when we were designing a whole new car for 2009 in any case. I wanted a complete drivetrain and of course there was this KERS issue and there was no way we could develop it ourselves. I first asked my partners Ferrari whether they would help us by giving us the entire drivetrain, plus KERS. They were not able to, for various reasons, and certainly they were not able to give us a seamless shift gearbox until race 10 of next year. With their consent and knowledge we approached McLaren and Mercedes, who were happy to give us a complete package and so we went for McLaren Mercedes. In that environment we wanted to ensure that there wouldn’t be any clash of interest either on the engineering front or the management front. We knew that we had to take a lot of help from McLaren and so ultimately we made the management changes that we thought were appropriate. We brought on board Simon Roberts from McLaren Applied Technologies to function as the chief operating officer of Force India.

Force India as a team – how important is that to Indian sport in general, particularly with the Indian GP?
It is more than sport in general and the forthcoming Indian Grand Prix. It is to do with the young Indian who wants to follow Formula One and loves the glamour and the competitive spirit of the F1. In India cricket is a religion for everyone but you do have that class of upwardly mobile, aspirational young Indians who think that Formula 1 is for them and so the popularity of F1, especially after the Force India team came on the grid, is that the fan club is growing hugely and of course 2011 when we host our first race will be the big moment. By which time I think there will be millions and millions of Indians following Formula 1.

This is a passion to get Indian sport to the highest possible level, but what are the chances of us seeing a successful Indian driver?
Well, I was joking with my friends and I said that with 1.2 billion people there must be a Lewis Hamilton in there somewhere! We have taken it upon ourselves to launch a driver search and a young talent programme and it is clearly at least a five to six year programme but we launch from 2009 and hopefully we will find the driver we are looking for.

Expanding on F1, there is a sort of crisis at the moment, there is a serious credit crunch that is affecting the sport, how do you see this progressing?
Clearly one has to be concerned about what is happening in the world today. Honda’s withdrawal was not a shock to me as I could well imagine that on one hand with global sales and profits under pressure, the first thing that any independent board member would say is ‘what are you doing with a Formula 1 team?’ It’s unfortunate but true that we have to cut our costs and live in the real world and balance both income and expenditure. From the sponsor side as well, people are cutting down budgets, so it’s not going to be very easy to get anyone to write out large cheques for sponsorship either. Force India is in a good enough position, it’s a smaller team with a much smaller budget than the big boys and so it is probably relatively easier for us to manage under these circumstances.

So do you in effect agree with what Max Mosley is suggesting in terms of cost cutting, particularly in regard to the standard engine?
Absolutely, I support Max Mosley’s initiatives totally. This is long overdue in my view. As far as standard engines is concerned, I think the view is that there can be an FIA-sponsored standard engine, but other engine manufacturers could build engines to their own specifications. In any case the engine costs have come down already in 2009 and are slated to come down even more in 2010 and it is reaching the objective of Max Mosley’s cost cutting.

Some purists might say that this taking away some of the edge of Formula 1?
If you look at today, you know the engine doesn’t make a huge difference. They are all pretty good and almost equal. There are a couple that are probably better than the others, but it is not such a great performance differentiator.

In terms of F1 for next year, if the worst came to the worst it comes to a point where more teams pull out of F1, does it get to a point were F1 is no longer viable as a sport as the grid is much smaller and it’s not such a global attraction?
I don’t think that we will reach such a drastic or severe situation. I firmly believe that if another team drops out the grid will still be competitive and attractive and I don’t think that the interest in F1 will disappear. There’s obviously the potential of teams running three cars instead of two, which is not out of the realms of imagination. There are teams out there who want F1 to continue and be as successful as it has been before, but what we need to do is cut the coat to suit the cloth, and I that is why I welcome Max Mosley’s initiatives to make sure the costs of running a team in F1 and competing in the world championship are brought down considerably.

In terms of your own team, you are the smallest team on the grid I assume a lot of the finances come from yourself. Would there come a point that if results don’t improve you say enough is enough and pull the plug and say I have enjoyed F1, but I cannot afford it any longer?
It’s not that I write all the cheques to bridge the gap, my companies are sponsoring the team as well. We have an independent measurement of the exposure and the value of that exposure in relation to what we spend and I have to say that the results have been very encouraging, so even though we are not a front running team yet we have got value for money.

Do you put a time limit on when you want to be up the grid and then hopefully competing with Ferrari and McLaren for podiums?
I certainly hope to be up to a midfield in 2009 given all that we are doing and I would be disappointed if we are not, so that is a major step forward to begin with.

Let’s talk about the medal system. Is it a good idea?
I personally support the idea and I think it will be very exciting. There are some people who view that the championship could be decided half way through the season, but arguably it works the other way round. I think it’s a good format and I think the FOTA will debate it respond as appropriate to Bernie. I like the idea of bringing in more creativity and more excitement and bringing it in if it makes it more exciting for the spectators.

We can sense that you have a passion for Force India and have had quite a successful season with major changes. What is success in 12 months time?
If I had a few trophies in this room, that would be wonderful.

Is it possible?
We’ll – nothing is impossible.