Force India

It is a rare occurrence that Eddie Jordan manages to ask a useful question as part of his punditry role for the BBC. Yet during the Abu Dhabi qualifying show, he came up with a corker for Paul di Resta: "Who is your teammate for next year?"

Simple, yet clever. Paul falls for the trap and replies: "That's not for me to decide," and what it would suggest is Di Resta has been given a race seat for 2012, while the second Force India remains up for grabs.

Fair enough, Paul has had a good season. He's been on fairly level terms to his teammate all year, and is definitely worthy of another season. But what about that teammate? Should he get another year?

Adrian Sutil certainly hasn't had a bad year. 34 points is quite respectable considering the best Force India can usually hope for is eighth, ninth or 10th, and a good result in Brazil could make him the highest placed midfield runner in the standings.

Despite this, it seems like he is being nudged out of his seat. Former pole-sitter Nico Hulkenberg has been waiting patiently all season for a chance to race in 2012, and is another driver who deserves a second chance.

It's not the worst problem to be facing Force India, but it is giving them something to think about. It could be suspected that Vijay Mallya's delay in announcing a lineup means they do not know what to do.

Fortunately for Vijay, I am here to advise.

My feeling is Force India should stick with what they have. Adrian has been with the team for five years, and both have come a long way in terms of results.

Hulkenberg is undoubtedly a quick driver, but that pole position glorifies what was a pretty average debut season. But I don't think Nico could do better than Adrian in a race seat, especially with a year out.

Sutil is a consistent performer, and I believe he can get the eighth place necessary to overhaul Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov in the championship. Any points at Brazil would give him a scoring strike rate of just under 50 percent since the start of 2010, which is quite impressive for a midfield runner.

If Force India do decide against him, then Williams would be the only other viable option. Kimi Raikkonen could ruin that opportunity, though.

It would be a shame if Sutil was left without a drive for 2012, but it is looking a bit precarious for him.

However, maybe a year off and a new team would give him a fresh start. With his current situation, he could be in danger of becoming the next Heidfeld. Loyal to a team, decent results, yet nothing special.

I'm beginning to understand your predicament Mr. Mallya.

Force India's boss Vijay Mallya made a positive proclamation in that he will name his team's 2012 drivers within a week of the Indian Grand Prix.

This decision, it has emerged, arrived at the request of Adrian Sutil who is undoubtedly concerned about his security in the sport with rumours of Nico Hulkenberg instead joining Paul Di Resta for next season.

Whilst many do not consider Adrian to be a driver capable of winning Grand Prix or Championships, there is a certainty that he can perform consistently and to a credible level. 

He is the type of driver that, once out of one team, would slot efficiently into place at another. You would indeed be taken aback if he could not gain a seat full stop. 

But then we must remember what happened to Nick Heidfeld. Heidfeld was outclassed by Robert Kubica in his last season at BMW but was far from out of the game. As a driver who was by no means the weak link in the field, he showed promise. 

Yet BMW chose not to keep the German, and he then found himself without a first team drive. In a sport where the likes of Nelson Piquet, Jr. had sustained a drive after lacklustre mediocrity some were surprised at this, and others were rightfully appalled. 

Adrian Sutil may have a saving grace if Mallya opts for former rookie Hulkenberg. He may seize an opportunity at the flailing Williams team. Frank William's outfit are in need of a talent to subvert a season which has witnessed disastrously slow pace and results. 

A slight cause for concern is talk that former World champion Kimi Raikkonen may also be in the running for the Williams drive, leaving Sutil with even less possible transfers. 

Whilst most have focused on this possible move to Williams, what seems to have been forgotten is the injustice that would be served if Force India were to deny him a further season at the team. 

Paul Di Resta has been a stunning new star. The Scot has thrust himself into the sport and into a reputation that predicts big things for him in the future. 

He has certainly kept Sutil on his feet, ensuring that he has not just assumed the No. 2 position. Out of all the teams this season, the pairing subsequently appear as the most level pegged of teammates. 

Yet it is Adrian who has scored more points, it is Adrian who has relied less on strategy to gain points scoring finishes and it is Adrian who therefore should sustain his seat at Force India and allow a further season of enticing competitive action between himself and his teammate.

Another aspect to consider is the position of Force India within the pack. When they first brought the Spyker team in late 2007, their first season just months later saw very little in the way of performance. They were back-end runners who faced an uphill struggle to survive.

From an outsider's point of view, the team was in doubt of having the ability to continue. The grim reaper seemingly had his eyes on them. 

Circumstances did change for the better though, and their improvement over the next couple of seasons was dramatic. 

And whilst in their second season most will remember Giancarlo Fisichella's pole and podium finish in Belgium, it was Adrian who over the course of the season spearheaded the team in the right direction. 

It was only fair that in the following race he took the limelight back with a confident and effective fourth-place finish in Monza. 

Points finishes then began more commonplace as the team bulldozed their way into the midfield. Sutil remained the stronger driver against Vitantonio Liuzzi in 2010 and has remained a regular points scorer this season. 

Apart from Nico Hulkenburg's surprise pole in Brazil, Force India's alternative candidate did little to cement himself in the forefront of spectators' minds. Unsurprisingly, he did not subsequently gain a seat for the 2011 season. 

Whilst you may ponder the idea that he deserves a second try in Formula 1, you can't help but think that this should not take the role away from someone who is evidently more capable at succeeding in it. 

The sad fact of the matter is that if Sutil were to join Williams, he would be dropping into decline. Unless the outfit were to improve vastly for 2012, Sutil would be relegated to scraps for pride as opposed to points. 

At Force India his impact would be so much more. Sutil, Di Resta and the team as a collective are looking to close in on Renault for fifth. So why change the dynamics which have elevated them to their promising position right now?

If they could continue upwards in future campaigns, then what is to stop them from tackling the likes of Mercedes and afford Sutil the opportunity to gain a much-warranted and much-deserved debut pole position?

As an overall case for Sutil's need to stay at Force India, I would implore Vijay Mallya to think carefully about who will actually take his team to newer heights and utilise the mass of above-par results that Sutil has gifted to the team. 

The latest pictures coming out of the new Buddh International Circuit, home of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix that was to be held on the last weekend in October, shed an interesting light on the decision to reinstate the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The pictures, published on the F1Times website, show a facility that looks to be far from ready and perhaps gives rise to questions as to whether the reinstatement of the Bahrain race doesn’t have a measure of face-saving for Indian officials.

One could certainly question the motives of Vijay Mallya, part owner of the Force India F1 team and Indian representative on the World Motor Sports Council, who voted in favour of the date change for India and reinstatement of the Bahrain GP on the now-clear October dates.

With FIA president Jean Todt telling anyone who would listen that the decision to reinstate Bahrain was not commercially motivated, we are left curious as to what the motivation really was.

Why couldn’t the race be reinstated next year if everything is now super-happy in Bahrain?

What could possibly warrant the shuffling of a carefully arranged schedule? If it’s not commercial, could it be that India won’t be ready?

Watchers of Indian sport will doubtless be aware of the habit of delivering major infrastructure projects at the very last minute.

The Indian Commonwealth Games, held in 2010, saw officials receive harsh criticism for the lack of readiness and testing of the facilities prior to the Games’ opening. History tells us, everything went well in the end, but not without some serious tension along the way.

The athletics track was being repaired on the morning before competition was due to start.

The athletes' village was in such poor condition that there were threats of boycotts less than two weeks out from opening ceremony.

But, in inimitable Indian style, everything worked out okay.

Fast forward six months and we have a similar situation at the start of the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Only a few weeks prior to England’s opening game, the venue was shifted from Kolkata to Nagpur—a trifling distance of 1100 km (690 miles)—because the Eden Gardens ground would not be ready in time.

Too bad for the fans who had pre-booked travel and accommodation.

Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, which hosted the final, was facing fire safety issues only weeks out from the big day.

Again, everything was all right on the night.

The pictures coming out of the Buddh circuit show facilities in a remarkably similar condition to those that we saw before the Commonwealth Games and Cricket World Cup.

There is clearly a massive amount of work still to be done, but this is India and they’ve shown time and again that they can do it.

But the extra couple of months won’t hurt!

One of the main motivators for a driver is the competition between himself and his teammate. Put two drivers together of equal standing and you create an environment where the team can benefit from an individual's desire to outdo their counterpart.

Sometimes this may go awry, such as Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel's coming together last season.

At other times it can get nasty, seen with Fernando Alonso's controversial pit lane infringement at McLaren and the consequential breakdown in relationship with Lewis Hamilton and the team.

Yet at other times it can spur a driver on to greater things. Look at what happened with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld with their spell at BMW. The two were level pegging for quite some time with neither taking the edge, despite both being well regarded.

In the end an initiative had to be found and it was Kubica who burst through, not only within his team but within the entire grid. He became a potential champion and race winner as opposed to his previous stature as an also-ran. 

But what happens if your teammate does not shower you with competitiveness. Do you succeed to the same degree if your teammate is gifting you an ease of access to being the team's spearhead?

Some drivers are able to destroy the competition if that competition is at best average. Nelson Piquet Jr, for example, was never going to define himself positively against Fernando Alonso. He never had it in him to do so and he was overwhelmed in a team that required more talent.

Alonso as a result looked even more invincible. In a straight duel between the two he wouldn't be required to reach anywhere near 100 percent capacity to triumph.

What you don't want to do, though, is to become complacent in such a situation. You do not want to lose the desire to progress and gain yourself a greater reputation. Whilst not doubting the ambition to succeed in a driver we see time and time again racers who you feel could be performing better if they were made to.

In the last couple of years at Force India Adrian Sutil has had a comfortable No. 1 position within the team. He began his time in the sport in style with total domination over his multiple team mates at Spyker. They may have failed to venture past the back of the field, but Sutil was never the joker in the pack. 

We knew from an early stage that he had some talent within. Aside from his sporadic clumsy errors, he proved consistent and looked to portray the emergence of a prominent Force India team. 

He was partly undone by Giancarlo Fisichella achieving the accolades he deserved more and was expected to achieve. Fisi got the first pole position and podium for Vijay Mallya's team in Spa 2009.

Yet then the Italian thought he was too good for the team and drifted off to a lacklustre finale to his career at Ferarri.

As karma would have it, Sutil would gain his highest qualifying and finishing position at the following race at Monza. It was a welcome result for someone who'd come so close to a fourth-placed finish in Monaco the previous season. 

Last year Sutil was rarely challenged by teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi. Until the last few Grand Prix, Sutil was on target to gain his first top 10 finish in the drivers championship. His car tailed off sadly towards the end and he finished the season 11th. In doing so however he gained the majority of his team's points. 

At times the trouble is, especially with the climax to last season, that Sutil had a tendency to turn up to Grand Prix weekends with less to offer. Mid running finishes would outdo the work Sutil had done to acquire specific praise for his quality overtaking and pace. 

Another season with a teammate incapable of challenging could have set Sutil into further times of optimistic promise that then just don't reach our expectations.

Thankfully Liuzzi lost his drive and shipped himself off to the doldrums of Hispania Racing. Some have called this career suicide, but arguably he never had that much of a career to begin with, so not much of a loss. 

To Force India in came Paul Di Resta, the Scottish wonder kid hot off the heels of a German Touring Cars title. As a rookie critics will expect more from someone who defeated current world champion Sebastien Vettel in Formula 3 before the German's emergence into the Formula 1.

Many are surprised Di Resta didn't join the grid sooner. In Race 1 he proved an able match for Adrian Sutil. Both were similarly matched on pace with frequent changes of position between the two throughout the Australian Grand Prix.

At least one of these switches was orchestrated by the team themselves but a 12th placed finish in his debut Grand Prix was a confident start.

Post race this was elevated to a debut points finish due to the disqualification of both Sauber drivers. 

And for Sutil this now means he has a fight on his hands to keep a stranglehold on his number one position within the team. The pressure is on him to push forwards in order to thrust himself further up the field and to at last claim a top 10 championship finish that you feel he justly deserves and is overdue. 

How demoralising would it be if Paul Di Resta instead achieved that accolade first, in much the same respect that Fisichella claimed the team's first podium a couple of years before.

Sutil will have his years of team dominance at Spyker and Force India to inspire him forwards. We expect him to do well.

And now he has the added incentive of defeating a new teammate with the able talents to succeed also. 

As teammates they could become the next Heidfeld and Kubica and push Force India higher than their sixth placed finish from 2010.

It is the way that Adrian Sutil's career can then move up a gear and slot him into a position where he can continue to make a name for himself. He may subsequently find a more competitive drive in future seasons. Failure to do so could leave him instead stuck in the middle of the field. 

Force India are the unusual focus of the F1 transfer market this year.

As Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes are set to have an unchanged lineup for next season, the focus falls on the midfield for driver changes.

However, Williams have confirmed that Pastor Maldonado will drive with Rubens Barrichello next season.

Surprisingly, Vitaly Petrov has supposedly done enough to be in the Renault team next season with Robert Kubica.

This means that best team that new entrants can apply for is Force India.

Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi drove for the team in 2010, leading them to seventh place in the Constructors Championship with 68 points.

However, neither of the drivers has been officially confirmed for next season.

During the 2010 season, there were rumours that the inconsistent Liuzzi was going to be replaced by test driver Paul di Resta, who also managed to win the DTM series this season.

These rumours have not gone away, and the British driver has looked impressive in Friday practice sessions.

More drivers have found themselves linked with a move to Force India. Nico Hulkenberg was kicked out of the Williams team for Pastor Maldonado, despite managing to qualify on pole position for the 2010 Brazillian Grand Prix.

Karun Chandhok has also been linked with the team; it could be a good idea to see an Indian driver in an Indian team.

But, Chandhok had a tough season at HRT, before being replaced by Sakon Yamamoto and Christian Klien.

The strongest drivers of that group are probably Sutil and Hulkenberg. Sutil is an experienced driver, with his best finish in Formula One coming in the 2009 Italian Grand Prix, where he finished fourth.

Meanwhile, Hulkenberg has been a good driver this year. 2010 was his first year at the top level of the motorsport, and he scored several points and finished 14th in the Drivers Championship.

The young German also showed us some skills when he qualified on pole in difficult conditions at Interlagos. He beat Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull Racing car by over a second—that is a big surprise in any weather condition.

Liuzzi stepped into Formula One after former Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella moved to Ferrari in 2009, and has had some questionable results in Formula One since.

He has the talent to be in F1, but there are many other drivers in several of the feeder series who could have performed better this season.

Paul di Resta did manage to win the DTM series this season, showing that he has the ability to win races.

It is surprising that he has not found a race seat yet, as he has performed well in practice sessions throughout the season.

Karun Chandhok had some good results at HRT—although that is maybe stretching the definition of good results—but he has no race seat due to a lack of money. He was one of the best drivers at the struggling team.

The race to be in the team next season is very close, but I suspect Hulkenberg will get in and di Resta will have to wait for another year.

However, I have no idea which of the current drivers will accompany him next season.

If I had to choose between them, I would go for Sutil as he has slightly more sponsorship money from Medion.

That's how close it is.

Force India may have just finished ahead of Sauber and Toro Rosso in the 2010 F1 constructors championship, but then Sauber just recovered from the whole BMW exit fiasco.

Toro Rosso, apart from the 2008 season where Vettel gave the team its only win in F1 so far and managed to place the team sixth in the table, have always been perennial backmarkers and is a training ground for Red Bull’s junior drivers.

If you look at the second half of the season, Sauber was actually better than Force India, while Williams managed to sneak past and finish ahead of Force India by just a point.

In the end, Force India managed only a seventh-place finish in the table, which was boosted by three new teams. A major worry for Force India is that a lot of key staff from the team has left to join other teams like Sauber and Lotus (or whatever it will be called).

Force India should address this situation immediately, or else the team may be further behind next season and will find the likes of Toro Rosso and even Lotus ahead of it.

The current set of drivers for the team, Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi, did not exactly have a stellar season and both were pretty patchy and inconsistent.

Sutil had a strong start to the season, but towards the end he really struggled, while Liuzzi was never really consistent but he was unlucky at times too.

Sutil and Liuzzi have been in F1 long enough, and with decent cars never really looked like they are going to set the world on fire.

Sutil all along was looking for a better drive and was linked to both Mercedes and Renault, but Schumacher has confirmed that he will race next season while with a Russian GP coming in 2014.

Petrov, apart from being a well-backed Russian, drove the race of his career in Abu Dhabi by managing to be ahead of Alonso and Webber, who were fighting for the title. But in the end, Petrov made Vettel’s job even easier.

Liuzzi has a contract with Force India for the next year, but then the team will be better off by buying him out of his contract, as he has lost them more money on the track and in the end they lost sixth place to the Williams team by just a point.

Force India is a proven team with a decent car and currently has the most attractive seats on the grid for any driver.

In Paul di Resta, they have a young driver who is quick and backed by Mercedes. Since he is backed by Mercedes, the team can actually get some discount on the engines and even ask Mercedes to foot his bill.

But more importantly, di Resta won the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2006 and the man who he beat to the title is currently the youngest F1 champion in the world.

Only one man has a similar junior racing pedigree similar to Nico Hülkenberg and that is Lewis Hamilton. The only difference was that Hamilton made his debut in a McLaren, while the Hulk had his chance with a struggling, cash-strapped Williams team.

Though the Hulk had a slow start to the season, towards the end he was even better than his teammate Rubens Barrichello, who happens to be the most experienced driver on the grid.

Despite having an inferior car, the Hulk managed to get a pole position during the Brazilian Grand Prix and that definitely is not a fluke.

It is a shame to see that a team like Williams, with its rich heritage, is dropping an exciting rookie for a pay driver, but then the team has a history of treating drivers poorly and that, along with various other decisions, has now made the team a midfield team.

Apart from these two promising drivers, Force India also have the option of hiring Nick Heidfeld, who apart from being a very solid car developer, has also raced with some esteemed names as teammates and have managed to beat them.

The list includes Kimi Räikkönen, Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica. Given the exit of technical staff from the team, Heidfeld will be a very safe bet for the team.

Apart from these drivers, there is always Karun Chandhok and with an Indian GP coming next year, it would be an amazing PR exercise for the team to have an Indian driver.

But then Vijay Mallya would not want the driver to overshadow the team, but Karun did do a decent job with HRT and he would not be any worse than its current set of drivers.

If Vijay Mallya is very serious about Force India, he should race di Resta, the Hulk or Heidfeld rather go back to Sutil or Luizzi.

It would be exciting to see di Resta and Hulk go against the other drivers, as both these guys would be driving for places in the top teams for the future.

There’s another management shuffle at Force India, following on the heels of James Key leaving the now solidly mid-pack squad.

Question is: How many top people can leave before the team falls back toward the rear of the grid?

This time, the exiting party is Mark Smith, who had already announced he was jumping ship to whatever it is we are allowed to call the Lotus squad without getting into legal trouble.

He’ll be replaced as technical director by an internal candidate: Andy Green.

So is this news? Well… in a slow news week, sure. But I do think this aspect is telling (via Autosport) and worth thinking about:

But rather than hiring someone, the team has revealed that it will promote engineering director Green, who had previously worked with Virgin and Red Bull Racing.

“When Mark leaves, which will probably be towards the end of this year/early next year, we have Andrew Green, who is going to take his place,” said Force India CEO Otmar Szafnauer.

“We’ve made some internal restructuring as well to take up the gap that James [Key] left, and all that will happen at the start of next year. We’ve got a good plan to overcome the fact that we had two of the key people leave.”

Szafnauer is confident that Green is the right man to lead the team from now on.

“Although he is not a big name, he has been around a long time, knows the team well and is a good competent designer/engineer – so the ideal man to lead the team in the right direction.”

I especially stumble on the “internal restructuring” concept for Force India. I understand the value of consistency and “institutional knowledge” as a team builds, but this sounds to me more like a case of they used to have six people managing things and now they have four. Maybe just three. And I’m not convinced the team has a “good plan” to overcome the departures of two key people.

In other words, Force India’s drivers better finish these next three races, and in the points. Because next year the team might be looking up at Williams, Sauber, maybe Toro Rosso. Heck… maybe even Lotus, if it doesn’t get its stuff together.

And that doesn’t even raise the issue of its driver lineup, although Paul di Resta just won his third DTM race in a row and now leads that series. For what that’s worth.

Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi is the latest driver to have to fulfill his contractual obligation to sit down with the official Formula 1 site for its ongoing “The Secret Life of …” series.

Did he say anything worthwhile? You be the judge:

Q: Which film last made you cry?
VL: There sure was one but I cannot remember the name. It was definitely not a romantic movie. I am not into that kind of stuff.

Q: What are you afraid of?
VL: Nothing, though I don’t like snakes, and all those little crawling animals with many legs.

What’s he mean? Dogs? Cats? Squirrels? I hate it when squirrels crawl around. Spooky!

Also, doesn’t that film have to “Life is Beautiful” with Roberto Benigni? Or “Grand Prix,” maybe?

Q: What was the last book you read?
VL: Autosport. I am not really into reading.

Would it have killed you to say, “Formula(spelled out)(the number)1blog.com”?

Q: Name five things that you hate?
VL: Oversteer, the F-duct, Chinese food, wasabi, untruthful people.

OK, actually that might be the best answer yet in this whole series. And, I just re-checked. Yes, Tonio DNFd China due to an accident on the first lap. That’s the truth!

Q: Have you ever – or would you ever – dye your hair?
VL: Yes, when I was a kid. When I was 17 or 18 I was quite wild and I went from yellow to green to black – the whole colour palette.

Q: What was the first CD that you bought?
VL: It must have been something by Michael Jackson.

I wonder what color his hair was then. And, have noticed, a lot of drivers say “Michael Jackson” in response to the question about first CD. I wish one of them would answer, “UBS” or “Bank of Monaco” or something.

Q: Do you have any tattoos or piercings?
VL: I have a tattoo on my left leg and have had piercings in the past- on my eyebrow and my upper ear – but they are gone now. When you grow up you want to have a different image, that’s why they had to go.

Q: What did your teachers say about you in your school reports?
VL: He was a really good boy – not the most talented, but well brought up.

Q: Who were your childhood heroes?
VL: Nigel Mansell and Maradonna.

Q: Do you have any guilty pleasures?
VL: No, not really. I am quite a rigid person. The shopping sprees are a thing of the past.

This series of answers seems to be all over the map. Pierced good boy who was well brought up. Hmmm… OK.

Q: What was your first vehicle?
VL: I was always passionate about cars from the time I started kart racing. And from the first money I made there I bought a Mercedes SLK 200. That was quite a big thing for me at that time. Unfortunately I crashed it after six months, so the pleasure was rather a short one.

That’s actually longer than he’s had an intact F1 car by about five months and 27 days.

There’s more at the F1 site, but I’m worried it will put me to sleep.

Paul di Resta, who not only has held his own while driving during Formula 1 Friday practices for Force India this year but also has been ripping it up Paul Charsley-style in DTM (meaning he’s been winning, whoa, you folks are mean!), is going to drive for Force India next year, Autosport has, voila!, revealed.

The question: Which seat will he take? Because neither Adrian Sutil nor Vitantonio Liuzzi are under contract, and both are therefore uncertainties. Sutil wants to move to a bigger team, with Autosport talking Renault but other rumors having him slotting into Mercedes if Michael Schumacher leaves. And Liuzzi? Well, he probably should be on the phone to Renault talking about how great Adrian is.

Here’s a little from Autosport:

Paul di Resta is set to graduate to Formula 1 as a race driver for Force India next season, today’s AUTOSPORT magazine reveals

The Scot, currently racing in the DTM, has impressed the team with his performances during his Friday practice outings this season after being recruited with the long-term aim of grooming him as an F1 race driver.

Although the Force India has yet to finalise its driver line-up for 2011, with question marks over both Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi, AUTOSPORT understands that the intention is to promote di Resta.

This might be today’s least unexpected news. Force India has been grooming the guy all year and, unlike other drivers being groomed who have, you know, zero talent, di Resta seems solid. And from the brief commentary I’ve heard from him, he’s also well spoken — again, he has the advantage of English being his first language. And, yes, I know there’s some sort of Scottish joke in there.

Honestly, as I said yesterday in my “2011 line-up” post, I’d pair Paul with Karun Chandhok and create some sort of politically incorrect colonial throwback team, but that’s just me. But a Paul/Karun team could be very fan friendly, which would help Force India stand out. And, unless things have changed this year compared to 2009, the team needs it. When I was at Monza in 2009, there was zero Force India merchandize, and the last time I checked they had very little online.*

See, here’s the thought: As the “new teams” settle in next year and creep closer to being competitive, there will be opportunity to claim the old “Red Bull” spot as the fun, fan-friendly, open team. Lotus could slot in, but not if they keep Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli (with today’s rumors suggesting they will). Virgin could take this, too — it would fit the company’s profile.

But I think Force India has the best shot, if they want it. Bring Karun in and just let the guy promote himself via Twitter and Facebook and whatever all off-season. He seems to like it, so let him roll with it.

But that’s just me. So, recap: Di Resta supposedly in at Force India. Sutil maybe gone.

* OK, so the Force India merchandise thing. I’m a bit of a fan, which I started last year mostly because it gave me a team to root for during Q1 — because if you’re a Ferrari fan, say, you know the team will get out of Q1… oh. OK, bad example. But anyway, it was more enjoyable to have a team to root for during the early parts of qualifying, which can get a bit formulaic. But I’m not die-hard, and I don’t really have a favorite team or even driver. (Yep, I’d actually hold myself up as the F1Ber who doesn’t have any “axe to grind,” unlike those axe-wielding Todd and Grace. I just like good racing and on-track battles. Monza this year was great fun.) But, before the “yoga retreat” that may, or may not, have been mentioned on a Podcast, I thought it would be fun to have a “Force India” shirt to wear. Could not find one I liked from the very limited selection. Fail, Force India!

Last year, a title fight between the drivers of Red Bull Racing and Brawn GP was developing as the season progressed. However, a visit to the low downforce track of Spa-Francorchamps threw up its own battle between Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen and the Force India of Giancarlo Fisichella, leaving championship contenders Sebastian Vettel, Rubens Barrichello, Mark Webber and Jenson Button trailing behind in the race. Can Force India repeat or even improve on their second place?

Firstly, we have to remember that Fisichella retired last year to Ferrari, so the drivers that are in Force India's line up for 2010 - Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi - have not won a Formula One Grand Prix, unlike Fisichella who had won three earlier in his career. However, unlike Fisichella's start to the 2009 season that gained no points, Sutil has gained 35 points this season and Liuzzi has gained 12 so far (under the 2009 scoring system they would have eight points and two points respectively), which shows that the car has improved, but this may have sacrificed its ability to get a podium at Spa.

This may be a race that the title contenders will dominate. Mathematically, the maximum number of points that a driver can receive in the last seven races is 175, meaning any driver could win the Championship. Despite this, the realistic contenders are from Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari, and they have shown this throughout the season. These are the only teams to win this season, but Ferrari and McLaren have only been in contention due to Red Bull suffering from a lack of ability to convert 91% of pole positions and leading 68% of all laps into wins.

Watching the Red Bull car in action tells a different story. Even if the front wing is reported to be as flexible as the rules regarding it, they have consistently outpaced their rivals, with the one pole position that wasn't won by a Red Bull was overshadowed by Lewis Hamilton pushing his car back to the pit lane because it was so low on fuel. The blown diffuser gave an advantage to the team that no competitor could find, and is only likely to be overtaken in the race by the McLaren cars, armed with their F-ducts.

Renault and Mercedes have had promising results occasionally, but I only expect a Renault to qualify in the top ten. In the race Nico Rosberg is likely to move into the point scoring positions. Both Williams and BMW-Sauber have taken strides forward with their cars, so expect them to earn points from this race. Force India may grab a few points here, but it is likely to be another race without points for Scuderia Toro Rosso.

As for the new teams (Hispania, Virgin and Lotus), this may be the track where one of the drivers can escape into the second qualifying session for the second time this season, but Hispania Racing are unfortunately almost guaranteed to come last, especially as Sakon Yamamoto will continue to be in the #20 car, replacing Karun Chandhok for the third time this season. As there is no testing, it is unlikely that he will catch up to the pace of his teammate, let alone the rest of the field.

My opinion is that in qualifying, in dry conditions, McLaren may just find enough pace to get ahead of the Red Bulls. My top ten for qualifying would probably involve Hamilton, Webber, Vettel, Button, Kubica, Alonso, Sutil, Massa, Hulkenberg, and de la Rosa. Most of those drivers will probably get to the top ten shootout. And if it rains, qualifying will hopefully be very mixed up! At Spa, you can never be completely sure what will happen...