Mallya: No showy launch, but we’ll be a Force

Force India owner Vijay Mallya has said that although his team plan a small-scale launch for their new car, he expects to be competitive in the season to come. The Indian billionaire, who owns global beer and airline brand Kingfisher, told the Indian Telegraph that the new car would be revealed at tests rather than a planned launch, following the pattern set by most other teams so far.

“There will be no formal launch this year,” the Indian billionaire said.

However, the team’s technical collaboration with McLaren for 2009 has led many observers to believe Force India could be one of the surprise packages of 2009. Although he bemoaned the lack of test time available, Mallya is confident the team will be delivering performances early in the season.

“No team has had enough testing and so, the first couple of races will be shakedown races. From Barcelona onwards, we will be seriously competitive,” he said.

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