Question: Can you give a run down on how you feel your team has performed in the first half of this championship?
Vijay Mallya: As you know I inherited a team that was not very competitive in previous years. F1 has got a lot more competitive in 2008. You are fighting for fractions of a second and in this context we have certainly improved. Obviously the question is ‘have we improved enough to score any points.’ We have given it all we reasonably could for 2008 and we have only one more element of development to come which is a seamless-shift gearbox which we hope to introduce for Hungary. Beyond that I have decided that we will now concentrate on the 2009 car. We have at least shown to ourselves and to our fans in India that we are capable of improvement. Now whether that improvement is enough or not is a secondary question. We have improved and we have the capability of improving. Hungary is the last stop for us in terms of development for 2008 and then all the focus is on 2009 when we sure hope to score some points.
Question: The car obviously performed very well in testing here. How do you feel about that?
Vijay Mallya: That is very encouraging but at the end of the day it is tomorrow in qualifying and the race itself that really is the proof of the pudding.
Question: The other point you make is about stopping development and concentrating on next year. How much are you also concentrating on building up the team, as one or two people would suggest it had been run down a bit and needs massive investment?
Vijay Mallya: That’s a fact. Things were sort of run down in terms of budget and resources but we bumped it up somewhat for 2008. We have an increased budget for 2009. It is a new set of regulations as we all know and as far as the human resources are concerned we have added two senior engineers to our design team. We will add as many as we need to. Of course we also have the support of EADS who have also dedicated about 10 people to us concentrating mainly on aerodynamics and CFD where we need to play real catch up because when they first came and assessed the team’s capabilities prior to the start of the 2008 season they told me quite categorically that we were three years behind the game, so we are looking forward to their active support and help. We have three wind tunnels running now, one of our own and two that are leased facilities, so we are giving it all we can.
Question: What sort of challenge is it for an independent team?
Vijay Mallya: It’s a very big challenge. We buy our engines, we develop our own gearbox and to have some sort of a hotchpotch of a car where the engine is sourced separately, the gearbox is sourced separately, the KERS is developed separately, isn’t my way of doing things, so I’m in negotiation with my friend in red here (S Domenicali) who supplies me with a wonderful engine to give me a package and it makes no sense for us to try and develop our own independent KERS system. So hopefully he’s making good progress, so that I can benefit from it as well.
Question: I know you are not directly involved but can you give us an update on a Grand Prix in India?
Vijay Mallya: In fact the news is quite positive. I happened to be having lunch with the CEO of one of India’s biggest banks and he confirmed to me that they had sanctioned a facility to the development of the Indian track, that he has actually bought the land and on October 1st. Construction of a brand new track will begin and so for the first time, now I think I feel very confident to be able to say to you that there will be a brand new track and that we will have our first Grand Prix in 2010. It’s just outside New Delhi.
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