The Standpoint

DREAMS REALISED

Fisichella moves to Ferrari as Mallya’s team looks ahead

by

Abhishek Mukherjee

At a time when the sport has drastically become unpredictable, the competition promises to be more equal in nature as the bridge between high budget teams and the lesser teams have seemingly lessened. As Fisichella challenged for the top spot with Raikkonen during the length of the race, the force of Force India for the Formula One community, at least momentarily, seemed to be finally sinking in. The result brought good news for him in terms of transfer to heavyweights Ferrari.

Had it not been for the KERS, called the “curse button” of Raikkonen’s Ferrari at a crucial moment, the Italian could easily have claimed victory. The KERS is not scheduled to be introduced to Force India till the next season, owing to its limited budget.

“The target was to win our first points and I finished second to get eight points. So that is great but I’m still a little sad since I could have won the race,” said Fisichella, painful to have lost out on victory. The Ferrari offer and subsequent clearance from Force India came less than a week after his stirring performance.

The second place at Spa meant Force India got its first points in its two-year old career. Adrian Sutil and Fisichella would be unlucky time and again to finish races without points yet awfully close to the threshold eighth place needed to achieve it. Not this time, though, as the team’s planning and hard work, so evident in many of the races of the season, finally bore fruits. Vitantonio Liuzzi is now tipped to fill the void left by the talented Italian.

“This is a fitting response to our critics. We have proved our competitiveness and the fact that we are not here to roam around at the back. We have a small budget, but the right kind of focus. The team is not short on resources but we spend the money carefully, consciously and wisely,” said team owner Vijay Mallya after the race.

“For any Italian driver, a Ferrari race seat is a long-held dream and for Giancarlo it was no exception. No one should stand in the way of this,” he commented on the transfer.

The 36-year old Italian will take the place of the non-impressive debutant Luca Badoer (disrespectfully nicknamed ‘Look how bad you are’), who had been a temporary replacement for the injured Felipe Massa. Seven time world champion Michael Schumacher was initially supposed to drive the second Ferrari but a neck strain cut short his high profile comeback.

It has been confirmed that Fisichella will be competing in a Ferrari atleast till the end of this season. The Italian confesses, though, that he had been offered a much wider role in the Ferrari team and a long term position there. The offer is not just for a temporarily replacement for Badoer. Regardless of the transfer however, Force India has found its groove and has ceased to be the struggling team it once used to be.

The positive results for the Indian outfit has promised to fuel the interests of Indians in this most expensive sport, a strategy to ensure maximum participation and response to the Indian Grand Prix that is planned for the 2011 season at Greater Noida. Though lack of support from the Indian Government and recent comments by present Sports Minister, MS Gill about F1 being ‘expensive entertainment’ has threatened to pose problems, F1 Head Bernie Ecclestone has expressed full confidence that the project will materialise.