Force India can surprise,feels Fisichella

Force India's scoreless debut season in 2008 is water under the bridge for its Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella who feels this year will be different.

Force India’s scoreless debut season last year is water under the bridge for its Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella whose gut feeling is that the Vijay Mallya-owned outfit could be the surprise package in this year’s Formula One Championship.

Incidentally,former Red Bull driver David Coulthard,now an F1 pundit,had a similar hunch about the Silverstone-based outfit following its tie-up with McLaren-Mercedes late last year.

Fisichella believes the slew of sweeping changes has,to a large extent,evened out some of the glaring F1 inequalities and insists Coulthard didn’t merely talk through his hat.

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“Why not? I think this year is a good opportunity for us as a team,” Fisichella said on the eve of Force India’s new challenger VJM02’s official track debut at Jerez,Spain on Sunday.

“Everyone has had to redesign their cars,so if you had a good car last year you might not have a good one this year. We’re all a lot more equal this year and with a good overall package I think we could be strong once we’ve had a few races,” he said.