Mallya optimistic of podium finish in Spa, Monza

Force India Chairman Vijay Mallya is expecting both Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi to be among points in Sunday's British Grand Prix and reckons a podium finish is possible in Spa and Monza.

Dwelling on Sunday's race at the Silverstone Circuit, just metres away from the team's factory, Mallya said Force India has some updates and he was looking for a fruitful outing for both the cars.

"It's a very big weekend, and obviously Silverstone is where we really want to perform well. It's the home race for us now and there's a lot of involvement from the guys in the factory, and the whole team enjoys the race weekend," Mallya said.

"We've got a little update coming, over and above what we had in Valencia, and hopefully we can bring both cars home well into the points. Clearly this car is better than anything we've had at Silverstone in many years," said Mallya, also the team principal.

Sunday's race will mark the halfway point of 2010 Championship and Mallya is optimistic that Force India has realistic chances of podium finishes in the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix.

"I've said before that the objective of 2010 was to regularly score points and I think we're meeting that objective," Mallya said.

"Spa and Monza are tracks that will suit the car better, and if we can get a podium, that would be the icing on the cake. But if not, at least we're demonstrating that we're scoring points. We're up to 43 now, and this team hasn't done as well in a long while," he added.

Mallya's sentiments found echo in Sutil who said in tracks more conducive to his car, he can do even better than his sixth place finish in Valencia.

"Sixth position in the end was very good for us and really a reflection of where we are in the field now. There are some tracks where we might even be a bit higher up but we are right there close to the front and anything from third to sixth is always a possibility," Sutil said.

Talking about Sunday's race, Sutil said, "We have some new developments, I would say a very similar step to Valencia, around the front wing and floor. As we saw last year, every update we put on - whether large or small - does move us forward so I think it will put us in a similar position to Valencia, top 10, higher if we can.

"We've also got the SRW working really well now too so the combination of the new parts and the extra top speed makes me feel quite confident going into this race," he added.