Why Force India are turning heads in the F1 paddock

Force India are turning heads in the Formula One paddock, displaying impressive speed and beating the likes of McLaren with what is probably the most competitive car to have come out of their Silverstone-based factory’s gates since Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya bought the outfit.

At the time, the team – then known as Spyker – had been in decline for some years since their hay-days in the late-nineties under the Jordan name and were reduced to backmarker status, with Mallya the team’s third owner in four years.

The team was renamed Force India and soon began moving up the field. The squad failed to score but showed much improved pace in their first year in 2008. In 2009, the team starred in the Belgian Grand Prix with Giancarlo Fisichella claiming pole position which the Italian followed up with a second-placed finish, harrying Ferrari’s eventual winner Kimi Raikkonen all the way through the race.

And while they haven’t added to that podium success yet, despite having come close a few times – most notably at the wet Brazlian Grand Prix last year when Nico Hulkenberg was in with a good chance of the win – the team are certainly looking competitive this year.

Adrian Sutil put in a strong showing in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the German twice leading the race and comfortably holding off the likes of Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso while only making two stops to his rivals’ three.

In Malaysia, the team looked set for one of their strongest qualifying sessions until a shower mid-way through the second session robbed them of the speed they had shown in the dry. Things were even worse in the race after wheel-nut issues at the pitstops forced the team to retire both cars.

But despite, the problems in Malaysia, what was promising was that the car showed genuine pace on two different types of track in completely different weather conditions.

The team’s strong start looks to have carried over into the third race in China, with Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta ending Friday practice eighth and ninth although McLaren, recovering from a dismal start to their year, appear to be a lot closer this weekend.

“There’s one car in front of us and one car behind us. I think we should be very similar, yes,” Sutil said when asked where he felt Force India stood relative to McLaren.

So what is Force India’s improvement in form down to? I’m no technical expert but quite simply, it seems to be the tyres. Tyres have come to decide the outcome of races in recent years since Pirelli entered the sport with fast-degrading rubber in a bid to spice up the racing and shake the order up.

The Italian tyre company has kept changing the nature of its tyres year after year, with teams that get a handle on tyre behavior the quickest benefitting the most.

To cite an example of the unpredictability introduced to the sport thanks to the Pirelli tyres, last year saw seven different drivers win the first seven races, and di Resta was recently quoted as saying by Autosport that Force India’s focus over winter testing had been to make sure its new car and Pirelli’s new tyres worked well together.

“Why are we competitive at the moment? Probably it’s a combination, it’s a package with the tyres. I just didn’t have as many problems as some others have with these tyres, that’s probably our advantage,” Sutil confirmed ahead of Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix.

But the question is, will Force India be able to stay competitive? Formula One is a development race and the top teams all have deep pockets that allow them to keep making new parts to improve their cars. It’s tougher for a team like Force India that has limited resources to keep the pace of development up and it’s only a matter of time before they drop back behind McLaren.

To add to that, drastic rule changes for 2014 will place further strain on the team’s resources and at some point this year they will have to decide to stop development on the current car and focus on next year’s challenger instead, as unlike the top teams Force India cannot afford to operate two simultaneous development programmes.

Exactly when that will be can only be decided depending on where Force India stand in the pecking order at what stage of the season. But for now, they are clearly keen to capitalize on the form they have displayed so far.

“Now we’ve just had two races so of course we will concentrate on this car for a long time,” Sutil said on Thursday.

“I don’t know when we decide to concentrate on the 2014 car. I think it depends on our general performance. If we’re really good in the championship we have to push on until the last race. If not, then maybe it’s more clever to concentrate on next year’s car but it’s too early to say.”