That’s what was Force India’s Season II on the F1 fast track. Slow off the blocks, Force India hit top gear in Belgium only to fizzle out again.

By Shreyas Sharma

In a whirlwind season where tags like ‘favourites' and ‘underdogs' went in disarray, Formula One saw the emergence of a virgin team who became "queen" in its maiden appearance. Brawn GP left the Ferraris and McLarens in its wake even as relatively ‘unfancied' teams proved to be bullish in the home stretch.

Amidst this varied canvas, lay the bubbly of a billion eyes - Force India. A team catching the interest of a cricket-crazy nation, and yet with no expectations to burden its forward march. This is perhaps the reason why it is difficult to classify a ninth place finish (13 points) in the constructors' standings as a success or a failure.

There can be no denying the fact that Force India made progress in 2009. Having earned no points in its lackluster debut season in 2008, the Silverstone-based outfit did shine on a few occasions, but on most others, it was no more than a faint glow, even though the team seems to have exceeded its own expectations.

"At the start of the year, we wanted points but I also wanted to show a genuine improvement in every area of the company. We have learned from the mistakes of last season. I would say this year has even exceeded our expectations as we have secured a podium, pole and fastest lap. We can be really proud of this," said team co-owner Vijay Mallya.

But if one delves deeper, a disturbing picture emerges. Force India scored all their points in two back-to-back events out of 17, in Belgium and Italy. On either side of these races, the story unfolded along familiar lines - lack of competitiveness from car and drivers, and of course, sheer bad luck.

Having done nothing of note in the first two Grand Prix, it was at the wet Chinese round that the Indian team showed the first signs of life with Adrian Sutil, who started 19th, holding sixth place ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock with six laps remaining. But bad luck struck, with aquaplaning forcing the car off the road and out of the race. Giancarlo Fisichella failed to live up to his number one driver-billing for the initial part of the season, finally showing glimpses of his talent at Monaco, finishing 9th. But it was back to the tail-end for him soon enough.

Disaster awaited Force India at the German Grand Prix in the form of Kimi Raikkonen once again. At Monaco 2008, Raikkonen's Ferrari had crashed into Sutil while the latter was in a position to score points. This time around, Sutil qualified seventh, the first time a tri-coloured car had made it beyond the first session of qualifying, and was running second when contact with Raikkonen ended his chances of a points-finish. Sutil finished 15th.

Hungary returned Force India to the back of the grid, and it was only at the 12th race, the Belgian Grand Prix, at the historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit, that the team finally started looking competitive. Fisichella brought the car home to the team's first-ever pole position, and it was only Ferrari's KERS system that could keep him behind Raikkonen in the race.

Fisi celebrated this result by defecting to Ferrari, to fulfill his ambition of racing for the Prancing Horse one day. That left Sutil in charge of number one duties, and he gave it his all, qualifying second at the Italian Grand Prix and finishing 4th, to score his first points since 2007. Fisichella's replacement, Vitantonio Liuzzi, also had an impressive first drive for the team, but a mechanical failure robbed him of a strong finish.

But it was a familiar saga all over again as soon as the teams reached Singapore, with neither car making it beyond Q1. Sutil did qualify 4th in Japan and 3rd in Brazil, but could not score another point. The season ended at Abu Dhabi just the way it began, with no competitive edge in sight.

How did Force India manage to get those 13 points then? The answer lies in the nature of the two circuits where the team was successful. Both Spa and Monza are horsepower-driven circuits, where aerodynamic downforce takes a backseat.

It was at these two circuits that the Mercedes-Benz FO 108W engine in the back of the VJM02, widely considered the best engine this year by far, came into its own. Brawn, using the same engine, were head and shoulders above the rest by this time, owing to their initial edge in aerodynamic development.
With the freeze on engine development still in place, the Mercedes powerplant has a good chance of being miles ahead of its competitors in 2010. What Force India need, though, is to find aerodynamic parts that actually work on medium-to-slow speed circuits as well.

One swallow does not make a summer. goes the old adage, and in Force India's case, engineers will now have to find answers as to what went wrong at most other events, where the team could not get far off the bottom, whether in qualifying or the race. The bar of expectations has now been raised.

"We have had opportunities we haven't been able to make the most of... This slightly mutes the satisfaction, but it does give a lot of cause for optimism - if we can get into a similar position next year and follow through all the chances, we could be solid midfield in both championships," says Mallya.

And with the Indian Grand Prix pencilled into the calendar for 2011 and the lack of an Indian driver on the scene, F1 desperately needs a competitive Force India team, to capture the imagination of the cricket-mad Indian fan.