Gascoyne upbeat about Force India future

The team, known as Spyker last year, will race under their new name after being taken over by Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya, who has increased their budget.

The Silverstone-based team have had four owners since their creation.

Gascoyne believes Mallya's entry has given the team a new lease of life, and he is adamant the false dawns are now over.

"The feeling in the team is one of excitement and the atmosphere is very optimistic," Gascoyne told the official Formula One website.

"Times have been very hard for this team over the last five years, with various owners and false dawns, but I think now with a realistic budget and an exciting driver line-up we can really start to do a good job.

"As a result everyone is excited about the future. We are under no illusions that we are starting from the back, but I think we can look at this year as the team really starting to build itself up as a competitive unit, so there is a very positive feeling."

Gascoyne reckons Force India should be able to make it to Q2 during the whole season, and he is hopeful they will be fighting at the back of midfield group.

"I think it is always difficult to judge from pre-season testing, but you can see that we have taken a step forward," Gascoyne added.

"We are starting from the back, so how far that step has taken us we will have to wait and see. I think one thing is very clear from testing though: we are no longer the team lapping around at the back.

"Formula One is going to be very competitive this year, with a very large midfield group, so I think our hope for Melbourne is that we can be on the back of that group. Anything else would be too much, but we have always said that our aim over the winter is to step out of Q1 into Q2, which we never managed to do last year.

"This is clearly our first step to take and we want to be able to do it this year. That has to be our aim for the first three races, ideally we would like to get two cars into Q2, but one would be a good step."