Vijay Mallya feels circumstances have worked against the Sahara Force India F1 Team in the opening three races of the 2018 Formula 1 season, with the team heading into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend with just one point to their name.
The team that has finished fourth in the Constructors’ Championship for the past two seasons have struggled to get the results the team principal of the Silverstone-based team feels they deserve, with first lap incidents in the past two races costing them dearly.
However, Mallya is delighted with the progress that has been made with the VJM11 since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and he hopes that with an improved car and with better luck, both Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon can score points this weekend.
“Baku will be an important weekend for us and we’re determined to get back into the points,” said Mallya. “The first few races haven’t delivered the results we were expecting, but this was mostly due to circumstances that worked against us.
“We were involved in first lap incidents that dropped us down the order in Bahrain and in China, and we didn’t show our true potential. With such a closely matched midfield, it’s very difficult to recover if you lose so much ground at the start of a race.
“On the positive side we’ve shown good progress with our car performance since Melbourne. We have made Q3 in the last two races and we understand the car more. It’s time for our luck to turn and the results to follow.”
