Giancarlo Fisichella: ‘The handling is much more consistent’

After a long winter the F1 action got underway again in Melbourne last weekend, and the early signs are that the Force India VJM02 could be a competitive package this year, as the car was able to run on the pace of several teams that were out of reach last season.

In the end Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella missed out on the points, but at least the overall performance gave everyone considerable encouragement.

Giancarlo has always enjoyed his trip to Melbourne, and this year he was celebrating the 13th anniversary of his first GP start.

‘I won in 2005, so it’s a special track for me,’ he says. ‘It’s the track where I made my debut in 1996, and I’ve always got a great feeling when I go to Melbourne for the first race of the season. I like the atmosphere, I like the town and I like the circuit too. Usually something good happens in the first race.’

There was carnage at the first corner, and Adrian Sutil was one of the unlucky victims. But Giancarlo made it through safely and gained a lot of places.

‘It was a good start, I was just careful at the first corner. I managed to avoid the accident! Then I was quite surprised about my pace in the first stint, which was good. I was a bit unlucky with the safety car but because my strategy was very good, I planned to stop on lap 27-28.’

The safety car meant that Giancarlo had no choice but to come in, and he thus wasted the advantage of running with a heavy fuel load in the first part of the race. He then misjudged the location of the Force India pits and faced a long delay.

‘When I went to the pits I made a big mistake, it was just my fault, I have no excuse. I was convinced that as last year, we were always at the very end of the pitlane. So I was going there. When I realised it was too late, I just saw the guys in my colours. I lost lots of positions, and the possibility to score points.’

After that he dropped out of contention for the top eight, but he continued to keep up a good pace, despite having a few problems.

‘In the middle stint I had a problem with the car balance, I had a lot of understeer through all the weekend I had a problem with the rear locking. We set up the car so it was very stiff on the front. In the middle of the race there was more rubber down, and the rear picked up more grip, so there was a lot of understeer. I think the pace was quite positive, we showed we were quite close to the other people, and I think there was a possibility to score points.’

On the plus side Giancarlo was very happy to be running ahead of several other top runners, including his former team mate Fernando Alonso.

‘He was a little bit quicker, with less fuel than me, and he was struggling to overtake. That’s a good thing. Reliability looks very good, and this year the handling is much more consistent.

‘I think the power of the engine is pretty similar, but obviously we’ve got the gearbox and the package is a little bit better. Mechanically the car looks right, and has very good potential. We just need more downforce.’

Giancarlo admits that it could be a lot tougher in Malaysia, which is a more ‘traditional’ circuit: ‘Here we’ll know where we are. We know that it’s going to be more difficult than Australia. But I won in 2006, and it’s another great circuit, one of my favourites. There are a lot of very nice places, like the quick chicane and the other quick corners. The only problem is the heat is horrible, it’s too hot!’

There’s already been a heavy thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon, and more rain is forecast for later in the weekend.

‘Absolutely, there’s a good chance that anything could happen. But so far the main problem is our level of downforce, which is very low, and in the rain it could be a problem. But we’ll see.’