Force India hopes to leapfrog Renault

The Silverstone-based squad has enjoyed its best start to a season to date, having scored 18 points in the first three races, and is 12 behind Renault, fifth in the standings.

But despite Renault's impressive start to the campaign, Mallya is confident his team can continue making progress and catch up with the French squad.

"The grid is very tight as we saw in Malaysia and Australia and there's no clear delineation between the front and the midfield," said Mallya. "The most important at this stage is that we are still up there fighting.

"Renault look very strong right now but there's still a lot more races to go this year and we have a clear direction about where we are going that will keep us with them, or hopefully leapfrog them.

"The drivers are confident and the team is working well so I think fifth is still realistic."

The Indian team boss admitted he has been delighted with the progress made so far by Force India, something he reckons is down to hard work.

"At the start of the season I said we wanted to be regular points finishers and here we are, three races in, with three points' finishes," he said. "It's very pleasing when you see just how far we've come in one year: after three races in 2009 we had nul points and were tenth.

"The difference, I believe, has been keeping the focus on what we want to do. We've kept our heads down, got on with the job and to a certain extent kept out of what the other teams are doing - we've focussed on our own game. It's a real credit to Mark Smith and his team that we've got the points we have.

"The team at Brackley and Silverstone are tight-knit, efficient and the results are now coming through."