Tonio Liuzzi Exclusive column on ESPNF1.com

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Double Points Finish - Belgian GP

Adrian Sutil has finished a scintillating Belgian Grand Prix in fifth position, his first  points scoring finish since the British Grand Prix and his best result of the season  since the Malaysian Grand Prix. Tonio Liuzzi came home in 10th position, despite  having his front wing knocked off by Sebastian Vettel while in the hunt for points. The  result moves Force India 18 points clear of Williams in the constructors’ championship  and Adrian into ninth position in the drivers’ title race. Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM03/03): 5th Tonio Liuzzi (car 15, VJM03/01): 10th   When rain fell just two laps into the race Adrian stayed clear of the ensuing chaos and remained out on dry tyres despite a safety car period. On the restart Adrian was able to jump ahead of the Williams of Hulkenberg into seventh and when Vettel and Button collided he was elevated to fifth. He pitted for hard tyres on lap 21 but was able to cruise past Kobayashi and then Schumacher to regain fifth. On lap 35 heavy rain started to fall and Adrian pitted for intermediate tyres. When Alonso spun on lap 38 another safety car period was called, allowing the German to move closer to the leaders. He finished the 44 lap race only nine seconds from eventual winner Lewis Hamilton.   Tonio Liuzzi was moved up to tenth position in today’s Belgian Grand Prix following a post-race drivethrough penalty handed to Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari for cutting a chicane while overtaking Tonio at the end of lap 42. The penalty elevates Tonio ahead of Alguersuari and gives him the final point available. The result makes it a double points finish for the team and gives it an 18 points advantage over Williams. Adrian Sutil - car 14 Another fifth place so I am very pleased as I started in P8. I think that was the best we could do. It was very tricky conditions out there and you never knew what would happen with the weather. When the rain came it was sometimes light in places and heavy in others and I had to really concentrate to drive it home safely. Of course I was racing closely so I had to keep pushing, particularly after the safety car periods when the field bunched up, so we had some great racing and overtaking. The upgrades worked well and we can still improve – it was just the start of the development, which looks good for the next race in Monza as well.   Tonio Liuzzi - car 15 I’m really pleased to be back in the points again this race for the first time since Canada. We’ve always been pushing really hard so to get a point here, and to make it a double points scoring finish for the team, is a really good reward for all the hard work we’ve done over the past few weeks. We decided to pit earlier and do a long stint with the hard tyres and it was a pretty good decision as we had a good pace on this set and were in P11, not that far from getting into the points. But then Vettel tried to overtake me at the last corner and took my front wing off. We lost more than 30secs changing the wing and without this I am pretty sure we could have finished in eighth or higher. But the race pace was still good, the car has been consistent and better than it has been all weekend so we could be proud of that. I’m now looking forward to my home race in 15 days time in Italy.  Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer We’re obviously very pleased to be back in the points again today. Both drivers demonstrated a strong race pace and we worked well as a team monitoring the changeable weather conditions.. The points are crucial for the championship at the moment and the pace also bodes well for Monza in a couple of weeks’ time. copyright : Official Forceindiaf1.com

Qualifying & Final Free Practice - Belgian GP

Adrian will start tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix in eighth position, his sixth  Q3 entrance this year. Adrian negotiated the thrilling rain-punctuated  qualifying session to secure his first top ten start since the Canadian  Grand Prix. Tonio Liuzzi will start from P12. The pitlane bristled nervously as all 24 cars took to the track early in Q1 to make the  most of the conditions before a predicted rain shower. When it materialised half way  through the session it lasted just a few minutes, giving a couple of minutes of drier  running at the end.  After a nail-biting lap both Adrian and Tonio passed into Q2 with the  12th and 15th quickest times.

Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM03/03): FP3:          8th         1:47.064 (15 laps) Q1:        12th         1:58.730 (7 laps) Q2:          5th         1:47.292 (8 laps) Q3:          8th         1:46.659 (3 laps) Tonio Liuzzi (car 15, VJM03/01): FP3:         18th  1:48.692 (8 laps) Q1:         15th         2:01.102 (7 laps) Q2:         14th   1:48.680 (7 laps) Q2 remained dry and both drivers opted for the soft tyres for both runs.  Adrian crossed the line with the fifth quickest time and Tonio the 14th,  however he will start from 12th following penalties handed to both Mercedes drivers. Having used two sets of option tyres in Q2, Adrian could only make one run in Q3 and timed his lap to coincide with the very last seconds of dry  running before another rain shower arrived. He got in one lap, the eighth  quickest of the session, and will line up alongside the Williams of Barrichello  for tomorrow’s 44 lap Belgian Grand Prix. Adrian Sutil - car 14 Getting into the top ten was my aim today so I’m really happy. It was a  tough qualifying of course with the showers and we had to be quick in  taking decisions on the pitwall and on the circuit we had to react quite  quickly as you never knew what was going to happen. I was lucky to go through in Q1 as I did my quickest lap on the intermediate tyres and the  track was drying. Then second qualifying went well and in Q3 I was quite  happy with the one lap I did. We only had one set of option tyres left for  Q3 and I just missed out on a second lap as at the end of the first lap it  had started to rain. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow, I think there  will be a lot of overtaking maneouvres, particularly up the hill and into  Eau Rouge after the start, and you can really attack throughout the race.  Tonio Liuzzi - car 15 It wasn’t such an enjoyable qualifying as everything was very confusing and stressful with the rain in Q1. But overall we made an improvement to  our car as we have had some problems with top speed from Friday practice  until Q1. The car has a good balance into the corners and the blown diffuser  is working well but although we improved in qualifying, it didn’t feel 100%.  In FP3 this morning we also ran just four laps, also with a different wing  setting, so we went into qualifying a bit blind. But we can be pretty happy,  the forecast is changing every 10 minutes for the race tomorrow so we’ll keep  on top of it and from P12 on the grid we’ve still got a good chance of scoring some points. Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer We’re obviously very pleased to be back in the top ten again after a couple  of difficult races, and to get two cars starting in the top 12 is our best  qualifying session since Canada. It wasn’t an easy session to call with the  rain coming and going but we made the most of the conditions to give ourselves  a good shot of a points finish, which is of course the ultimate aim. We know our  race pace is strong, but as usual here in Spa you also have to be spot-on with  the tyre calls if the weather is changeable. We look forward to a competitive  race tomorrow. Copyright : Official Forceindiaf1.com

Preview - Belgian GP

After a three week break the FIA Formula One World Championship returns to action with the drivers’ favourite Belgian Grand Prix. Held at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the heart of the Ardennes forest to the south east of the country, the race is famed for its awesome combination of corners, unpredictable racing, weather and wheel to wheel action that has yielded some classic races.

The 2009 edition of the race was the perfect illustration of all these factors and holds a special place in the memories, and record books, for Force India. Going into the event that year, the team had made solid progress but had only qualified in the top ten once and had not yet finished in the points. However it went away from Spa with its first-ever F1 world championship points, pole position and podium finish when Giancarlo Fisichella put together an outstanding lap to put the VJM02 on the front row and then finish less than a second from the top step of the rostrum in the race. We now goes to this 2010 event with optimism, fresh from its summer break with new developments and a great  chance of further increasing to its points tally this season.   Dr Vijay Mallya, chairman and team principal Everyone in the team is looking forward to this second part of the season. We had a couple of weeks off over the shutdown period and we’ve all come back refreshed, strong and optimistic. We are currently sixth in the championship and we’ve got to make sure that we hang on to it by optimising everything we can. And Spa is a great track to start on a roll.  We have a good car in low downforce trim, which counts at a track like Spa and Monza. We also have a new rear wing package to use this race in conjunction with the F-duct, which is working very well. Additionally we will be using the new blown floor on both cars on Friday. We tried it in Hungary, and we hope to actually race it in Spa if the information we gather shows as much of an improvement as it did there.  All the same, we’re not pinning all our hopes on Spa and Monza. It’s going to be tough to replicate the kind of form we showed in Spa last year: everybody’s improved, the competition is fierce and also very even in the midfield – the gaps between teams is so small now. We have also shown that we have been regularly able to score points on virtually all the tracks, not just the low downforce ones - apart from the last two races, which was were unlucky in various regards, we’ve been in the points at a variety of track configurations.  We also still have some updates coming for the rest of the season so it’s going to be pushing all the way, right through to Abu Dhabi. We’ve got the opportunity to achieve our best finish in the championship in many years and it’s not something I’m going to let go lightly. Adrian Sutil - car 14, VJM03/03 It’s been a busy time despite the lack of racing – I spent a few days in Goa, India, filming and doing some PR work and then went back home to Switzerland for some training in the mountains. After that it was time for a couple of days holiday, finally! I’ve come back feeling stronger and motivated and Spa is a great track to get going again. It’s what I call a ‘nature’ track – through the forests and really follows the lines and contours of the hills. For me, it’s is the best circuit on the calendar as it has some of the most spectacular corners of the year, such as the awesome climb through Eau Rouge. There’s really nowhere else like it to get your adrenaline going and with the added challenge of changeable weather, we see some great, exciting racing. Of course last year the team had a dream result at Spa, with the pole and then the podium, so we’ll go back there with confidence knowing that this has been historically a track we’ve performed very well on. But this is 2010 and we have to look at what we are doing now rather than to the past. I’m pretty confident that we’ve got a car that will still suit the track very well. We’ve still got a very strong straightline speed advantage and the F-duct makes us quickest through the speed traps at most circuits we go to – which will help us on the long straights in Belgium.  We will also test our new blown diffuser again on Friday here. It worked well in Hungary and gave an improvement over the normal floor so we’ll work through more development in practice and, if it performs as well as we hope, we’ll use it in the race. I can’t wait to get back out there racing now – I love the track, I know we can perform in any weather conditions and we’ve got new developments. I really want to be back in the points again in Belgium and start the second part of the season as we mean to go on. Tonio Liuzzi  - car 15, VJM03/01 After the back-to-back grands prix in Germany and Hungary, it was really nice to have a break. I went to one of my favourite holiday places - Mykonos in Greece – and had a few days chilling out, resting and recharging. I also spent a lot of time in the gym making sure I am physically ready for the next phase of the season. There’s a lot of travelling, some tough races and, of course, some big fights to come. We’re sixth in the championship right now but holding onto it won’t be easy so we have to be on top form at each and every track we go to.  So now we go to Spa-Francorchamps, probably my favourite track of the year as it is a mixture of adrenaline and technique. It has a great mix of really high-speed and technical corners and there is nowhere else that gives you the same rush. The weather is always something we talk a lot about as well when we go there. Rain can come at any time and, as the track is so long, you can have some parts of the circuit wet and others dry. It certainly makes things exciting!  Obviously, we had a great race at the venue last year with Giancarlo Fisichella getting the pole and then finishing second in the race. At the time no one expected it from us, but after that everyone started to take notice and gave us credit for the work we were doing. I think we are still capable of a top position and certainly points this year. We will bring our blown diffuser in for further testing and I’ll run it on Friday for the first time. Plus we will also have a low downforce package with a new rear wing for Spa and Monza so it will be very interesting to see how everything performs. We are still really confident of being back in business in the second half of the season. Paul di Resta, test and reserve driver Although there’s not been an F1 event since Hungary I’ve been pretty busy with my DTM programme so there’s not been much time for holidays. I’ve had two races, first at the Nurburgring and then at Zandvoort, where I picked up another podium to really get into the title fight. I’ve also been continuing my schedule with Force India, working in the simulator with the engineers and trying to get as prepared for the Belgian Grand Prix as we can. Everyone is very pumped up to do well at this track knowing that the result last year was so good and the championship battle is so tight.  Unfortunately I’m not going to be in the car this time out as Spa is a pretty unique track. We’ve also got some work to do on the new blown floor and the low downforce package so it’s natural we need to give the race drivers the additional time to properly evaluate. I’m happy with this – although it’s always hard to sit out on such a great track – as it’s a team effort and we’ve got a big fight on our hands to hold onto sixth in the championship. I’ll get my chance in Monza, which I can’t wait for. ALSO: Follow the team live over a race weekend on Twitter @clubforce Copy right : Forceindia official Web Site

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Lost court case costs Force India €1 million

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Sutil confident of ending F1 season on a high

Force India driver Adrian Sutil  is confident of picking up points in the remaining seven races of the Formula 1 season and finish 2010 on a high.

"I feel very comfortable. They (remaining races) should suit our car (Mercedes ). If you remember last year, there was a podium finish there (Belgium GP at SPA ) and a pole position," said the 27-year-old German here last evening before leaving for Switzerland after a short holiday in Goa 

Last year at Monza, Adrian Sutil was second in the qualifying and finished fourth in the race and race long battle with Kimi of ferrari. 

The regulations that caused changes in the tyres of F1 cars this season would be a disadvantage, felt Sutil, who is 10th overall with 35 points, but said he was confident of doing very well in four out of the last seven races this year.

"Last year we had an incredible car there, it was a big advantage. This year, it's a little bit more consistent tyres. We don't have that advantage any more. Still we should be able to score a lot of points in the coming races. We have very a good chance in Spa (Belgium on August 29) and Monza (Italy  on September 12)," he said.

"Then we go to Singapore which is a bit more difficult course. Korea...nobody knows. Japan  and Brazil  should suit us well (before the season-ending race in Abu Dhabi). Four of seven -- I'm absolutely confident," said Sutil.

Sutil, who was in Goa on a short holiday, said he was satisfied with his performance this season.

"I'm satisfied and very happy with my performance. It was my goal to score a lot of consistent points and that's what happened this year really. I lost a little bit (momentum) in the last two races. A bad weekend in Germany  (But) I'm not concerned we are losing. On the whole I'm very happy," said Sutil.

"At the beginning, we had some failures in the car in Australia  (Melbourne in March). I could not finish the race (because of) hydraulic problems. The first race (Bahrain GP in March) had a little incident in the first corner. In the third race in Malaysia, I got my first points and from thereon it went really well," said Sutil.

"The only races that did not go well were the last two races (Germany and Hungary). In Hungary (Budapest on August 1) there was this most uncommon incident that can happen in the pit lane, crashed into another car. Sometimes these things happen," he pointed out.

While generally satisfied with his vehicle, Sutil also pointed out its shortcomings and needed the body shape to be improved in order to remain competitive.

"Generally satisfied, yes. (But) We have to get it upgraded now, we are losing to the competitors, a little bit in the diffuser area. We had not got this new diffuser. (But) It looks good overall," he declared. He described the race in his home country on July 25 as his worst so far and added the team members had a subsequent meeting to thrash out how not to commit some mistakes again.

"I think it was Germany. We just were not fast enough, gear problem in the morning on Saturday. I got extra pit penalties for changing the gearbox. There was big mess in the back.

"I don't have to explain everything. People have seen, what happened in the race with the tyres. We were disappointed. Out of these situations, we learn the best. We had lot of meetings after this to try and make sure we don't make these mistakes again," he said.

For next season, Sutil feels his best option is to remain with Vijay Mallya's  Force India but did not rule out a change too when asked about reports that he may join Renault  in 2011.

"Too early to say, nobody knows what Renault is going to do. People are speculating. We have not seen any official statement. I don't think about it so much. You don't only want to take the result from this year. You have to look to the future with the team.

We (Force India) are very similar to Renault. Renault is one two places in front of us. At the moment, I don't see any reason to change my team. To find a better team than Force India is difficult at the moment. You have to go to the absolute top teams. Ferrari , McLaren  and Red Bulls...all those teams have no place," he said.

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