• 2010 Season

'Give the rules a chance' - Mallya

ESPNF1 Staff
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Vijay Mallya has told the F1 paddock not to make any knee-jerk reactions © Getty Images
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Force India boss Vijay Mallya has urged the Formula One paddock to give the 2010 regulations a chance and not make immediate changes on the back of one boring race.

Last weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, which was the first race since 1993 not to have in-race refuelling, has been widely condemned as one of the worst starts to a season in the sport's history. But Mallya is keen for F1 to step back and let the next two races unfold before making tweaks to the existing format.

"We need to give the regulations a chance to prove themselves and for people to learn how to use them," he said. "To change everything after just one race is a knee-jerk reaction, let's see how it goes in Australia and Malaysia and make an informed decision about whether we do need to react to improve the Formula One show. If we do then at least we have more information to make a proper call."

Tonio Liuzzi scored two points for Force India in Bahrain and the car was one of the best outside the top four teams. Mallya said that the team's objective this year was to keep in touch with the front runners and on occasion fight for podiums.

"You've got to be amongst the top 10 to score points to begin with," he added "With the big four - McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull - for me to say that we will run ahead of them sounds ambitious. But to be knocking on their doors and ahead of the rest is something I can be very pleased about.

"The way we are today I think we're very competitive, and everything is going to plan. In 2009 I said we should score some points occasionally, and we scored 13, which was respectable. This year I said we should score points regularly. We have opened our account in the first race and I think the opportunity is wide open for us to now score points regularly. I wouldn't be surprised if we could target the odd podium or two. And next year we should hopefully strongly target podium finishes."

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