2010 F1 Season Review Part 7- A Force to be Reckoned With | Thebigtip

The 2010 Formula One season was one of the most exciting to date, with a heady mixture of new teams, new regs and a four-way title battle to keep even the least enthusiastic petrol-head glued to their telly screen. In my extensive season review, I'll be taking you through each of the 12 teams' performances, who was hot and who most certainly was not and I'll be giving my raw and unsolicited opinion on whether each team deserved their final finishing place. Finishing in a personal best of seventh, it's Force India...

Drivers: Adrian Sutil / Vitantonio Liuzzi

Team principal: Vijay Mallya

Car spec: VJM03

Engine: Mercedes

How fortunes can turn around in the shortest space of time. It's only taken three seasons for Vijay Mallya's little team to burst comfortably into the mid-field, and 2010 was proof they're here to stay.

Formed in 2007/8 with the buyout of Spyker F1 (formerly Midland F1, erstwhile Jordan), Force India entered entered the F1 jungle as just another minnow trying to stake a claim where its former owners had failed. No true F1 fan wanted to see old EJ leave the paddock, and it seemed something of a poetic justice to witness his successors fouling it all up. The sport had only ever boasted one Indian driver (Narain Karthikeyan drove the Jordan Toyota in 2005), and it made little sense that in its third season as a serious competitor there was no Indian driver at its helm.

Instead for 2010 was stalwart Adrian Sutil, with the team since its Spyker days, and Vitantonio Liuzzi, returning to a full-time drive for the first time since his 2007 stint with Toro Rosso. Both drivers were former champions in lesser series', but neither had stamped any credible authority over Formula One. You would be forgiven for believing that 2010 was going to be just another season of trundling round at the back for Force India's luckless men.

How fitting, then, that they could spring the ultimate surprise of the season. Sutil set the initial pace straight off the mark in Bahrain practice, which raised eyebrows instantly. What was happening here? Force India never dominated anything, unless it was throwing it down with rain! Come the race, for which Sutil had qualified in 10th, it was team mate Liuzzi who finished in this selfsame position to shout to the world that Force India was here to stay. Consistency was a more present force that it had been the season before, where pole positions, podiums and good form had been lost in the blink of an eye. It was team newbie Liuzzi though, and not seasoned Sutil, who was getting the job done.

While the Italian was holding up the operation by raking in points at every ample opportuntiy, Sutil was busy learning not to crash and began helping out in the cosntructors' battle too. As long as qualifying went well (and it often did for Sutil with some solid top ten positions), world championship points were virtually a given once the reliability issues were straightened out. Sutil is massively talented, and now Force India's on the rise he may well be the man to take them all the way to that so-desired first victory, if they should so wish to keep him.

Liuzzi is something more of a question mark. He was an average driver during his time at Red Bull and Toro Rosso, always showing himself to be the fun-loving party type rather than the more conscientious racer. Like a fine wine, he seems to have matured nicely as the seasons have progressed, but he somehow still lacks the style and bravado required of an F1 race winner.

With the inaugural Indian Grand Prix looming, it's a wonder Vijay Mallya still hasn't plumped for an up and coming young Indian driver to pilot them to glory. Narain Karthikeyan seemed an obvious choice, but he's already been poached by Hispania for 2011. Neither Sutil nor Liuzzi so far retains his 2010 race seat, but there's a while to go yet until the green lights go out again. Sutil is the most likely candidate to stay with Force India, whereas Liuzzi's future, based on his inconsistent past, remains as clear as mud.

Sutil finished: 11th

Liuzzi finished: 15th