Giancarlo Fisichella is hoping that the FIA’s radical shake-up of Formula One’s regulations will catapult him up the pecking order in 2009.
The Italian veteran endured a difficult maiden season with new team Force India and failed to score a single point.
But with radical changes in the regulations expected to level the playing field in 2009 (see HERE), Fisichella is optimistic that Force India – who recently entered into a technical partnership with McLaren-Mercedes – will be able to use the new rules to their advantage.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said the Roman. “With the new rules it could all change, especially with the slick tyres, and different downforce levels.
“I think it’s very important to build a good car for those rules, and to try to run as soon as possible with the new car with the slicks. With the new partnerships I think it’s a great opportunity for us.”
“We have a better chance than this year for sure, but nobody knows how things will work out with the new rules! We’ll only see that in Australia.”
Pointing to his disappointing maiden year with Force India, Fisichella commented: “It was a difficult season, and we knew it would be. Actually at the beginning of the season in some places we were very close to getting to the top 16 and also reasonably close to the points, quite close to manufacturer teams such as Honda and to other people. It was actually a tough season.
“We went in the right direction sometimes, but we lost a bit of direction later in the season, and in the last few races we stopped development of the 2008 car so it was very difficult to keep pushing.”
With thanks to autosport.com
