Tonio Liuzzi believes that Force India must continue to build on its good start to the 2010 campaign if the team is to meet its targets.
Liuzzi has made a strong start to the this year’s world championship, after scoring points in its first two rounds. The Italian may have also scored points in Malaysia if it he had not been for an electrical problem forcing him to retire.
Although the 28-year-old was disappointed not to have recorded a third successive top ten finish, he still believes that he can take a number of positives away from the weekend.
“It was disappointing, because it was another possibility to score points.” Liuzzi told the official Force India website.
“We had a good start and from 10th we went to eighth into the first corner. I got stuck behind Hulkenberg, who was struggling a lot with the rear tyres, but from my pace within two or three laps I was able to pass him. So it would have been another strong race, as we had a strong pace.”
“Then Schumacher stopped and that put me seventh, but then we had an electronic problem that cut the throttle, and that was basically the end of the race. Without that I’m pretty sure we could have finished maybe seventh or eighth. Hamilton had quite a good pace, but my pace was good enough to keep Massa and Jenson behind. It’s frustrating that we had the problem, as a few more points would have been good.”
Although Liuzzi’s race was blighted by technical failure, Adrian Sutil recorded a sterling drive to take fifth place for the Silverstone-based team. Subsequently Liuzzi believes that Force India must continue to score as many points as possible if the team is to achieve its initial target of fifth place in the constructors championship.
“As I mentioned before if I had finished the race I would have scored some points which would have been good for the team.” he said while commenting on his team-mates drive, “This time it didn’t work for me, but it worked for Adrian, and it’s another strong result for all of us.”
“It’s important, because our target since the beginning was to fight for the fifth place in the World Championship. It’s difficult because Renault is making big steps forward every race, but we keep on trying. To do this we need to finish with both cars every time, and that is our target now.”