Force India VJM10: Mallya challenges Renault boss over Force India pity
Vijay Mallya says Cyril Abiteboul could be forced to 'eat
his own words' after the Renault F1 boss said he 'felt sorry' for
privateer teams like Force India ahead of the 2017 F1 season.
Speaking at the launch of the new Renault RS17 yesterday, Abiteboul said he feared an 'arms race' will develop as teams get their head around the revised technical regulations, putting smaller teams like Force India in a bad position.
“I think this season will also really be an arms race. I really feel for the teams who are under resourced because clearly when I see this car that we are presenting today is not the car that will test in Barcelona and the car in Barcelona is not the car that will race in Melbourne.
“I think most of the car build budget for Force India
will be gone by now just to cope with the new regulations. So that is
something that we are also taking into account. With the level of
resources that we have we should be easily capable of beating teams like
Haas, like Force India and so on and so forth.”
F1 2017 is here – get the dates, the line-up and the TV schedules ahead of the season
However, Mallya was unimpressed by Abiteboul's dismissive attitude, challenging Renault to live up to its bold targets of beating Force India to the top five overall.
"I read an article this morning that Cyril Abiteboul of Renault said that poor teams such as Force India were going to suffer in this arms race. Well, good luck to him," he said at the unveiling of the new VJM10. "He might have to eat his words. It's not the amount of arms you have, it's the quality of your weaponry."
"If we did not dream big, we would not have finished fourth in the world championship last year," he said. "To be in the company of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari is a huge accomplishment in itself.
"We will always dream big, we have never ever had conversations, even in private, that we are not going to break into the top three. That is certainly going to be our objective. We will give it our best shot.
Speaking at the launch of the new Renault RS17 yesterday, Abiteboul said he feared an 'arms race' will develop as teams get their head around the revised technical regulations, putting smaller teams like Force India in a bad position.
“I think this season will also really be an arms race. I really feel for the teams who are under resourced because clearly when I see this car that we are presenting today is not the car that will test in Barcelona and the car in Barcelona is not the car that will race in Melbourne.
F1 2017 is here – get the dates, the line-up and the TV schedules ahead of the season
However, Mallya was unimpressed by Abiteboul's dismissive attitude, challenging Renault to live up to its bold targets of beating Force India to the top five overall.
"I read an article this morning that Cyril Abiteboul of Renault said that poor teams such as Force India were going to suffer in this arms race. Well, good luck to him," he said at the unveiling of the new VJM10. "He might have to eat his words. It's not the amount of arms you have, it's the quality of your weaponry."
"If we did not dream big, we would not have finished fourth in the world championship last year," he said. "To be in the company of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari is a huge accomplishment in itself.
"We will always dream big, we have never ever had conversations, even in private, that we are not going to break into the top three. That is certainly going to be our objective. We will give it our best shot.