Q: Vijay, you've taken a bit of a time-out from Formula One racing so far in 2015, attending only the Australian and Monaco Grands Prix. Have you lost your fondness for F1?

Vijay Mallya: Ha, no, definitely not! I was stuck with parliamentary duties and then there was the Indian Premier League of Cricket, but with both over for the time being here I am again where I belong. And F1 hasn't really changed since last season so don't read any loss of fondness into my absence. A number of midfield teams have improved in performance. Yes, Mercedes is still dominating, but they are getting pushed a bit by Ferrari which is good for the show.

I have to confess that our own performance started on a slow note this year, but that was mainly because of the rule changes for wind tunnel usage. We used to use two wind tunnels in the past: we did preliminary design in the old tunnel and then did a lot of correlation work at the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. When we had to choose one wind tunnel we chose the more modern tunnel which is in Cologne and that meant shifting the entire aero department from England to Germany - and that took some time.

That is why we couldn't start the season with a bang as we'd have liked to, but the good news is that about midway through the season - certainly before Silverstone - we will come up with our real 2015 challenger and hope to be quite competitive. Checo (Perez) did really well last weekend in Monaco with our old car, so when the new package arrives between Austria and Silverstone I am pretty sure that we will see continuous points finishes at the subsequent races.

Q: So you are following the good old tradition of finishing with a bang than rather starting with one?

VM: Everybody saw what happened with Williams last year: they started slowly and became a real force in the second half of the year. And it looks like they'll do it all over again this season. (laughs) True, for us there's still a long way to go, but I am quite optimistic.