Mallya in the 'Thursday Five' in Monaco

Vijay Mallya faced the press in the FIA's "Friday Five" press conference on Thursday in Monaco. Mallya attended alongside other team 'top-dogs' to face questions about budget capping, F1 in India, the ongoing Max Mosley affair, the Concorde Agreement and rising oil prices. Here's everything the Force India team boss had to say...

Q. Doctor Mallya, your thoughts particularly on budget capping.

Vijay Mallya: I have been very clear in my mind that small independent teams like Force India would welcome a budget cap otherwise the difference between independent teams like ourselves and the teams that are backed by big automobile manufacturers will only widen as time goes on. Take the KERS system for example that we just talked about.

I am determined that it really is not worth our while to try and develop a KERS system on our own, so since we currently use the Ferrari engine I am dependent on Stefano for the KERS system and I am hoping he will give it to me at an affordable price. Whether it is KERS or whether it is the 2009 car itself I am, for one, a huge supporter of the initiative to cut the costs.

VM: India has a huge population of about 1.2 billion people. I think if you just look at the acknowledged size of the middle class which I think currently is 300 million and projected to grow to 400 million by 2010, and you look at how things are changing for the middle class in India with higher disposable incomes, higher aspirational values, greater discretionary expenditure, a very positive movement towards Western trends, all of this propelled not only by robust economic growth but by the young demographic that we have in India, where we have over 500 million who are under the age of 25 and 400 million under the age of 18.

With youth comes a whole new level of aspiration and a whole new challenge of excitement. Cricket is for everybody and is the reason why the Indian Premier League has been a complete blockbuster, I think not just for India, but for the world. But there is a section of India that says that cricket is something we have lived with, it is almost like a religion, but we want something new, something exciting, something that has a bit of glamour in it as F1 represents.

So the fan following of F1 in general and Force India in particular is fast and furious. I think that is good for the sport, I think that is good for F1 in general and it is good for every single team and for all the sponsors of all the teams because India is potentially a very large market. Of course the pressure is on us to demonstrate that we have to move up the grid.

We bought a team that was languishing at the back, if I can put it that way. I think we have made significant progress in less than five or six months and we are now getting up to the midfield. We only hope that we will play catch-up in 2008 and we can take advantage of the fact that everyone will have a brand new car in 2009 and hope to be somewhat competitive and in the points by then.

Q. Would...you like to make a comment on the fact that this is the first Grand Prix of the year that Max Mosley has attended?

VM: Well, you know I've known Max as president of the FIA because I happen to be the chairman of the two ASNs in India. I think he's called a general assembly in the first week of June and I guess the FIA membership will decide what the next step should be.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazetta dello Sport) I would like to ask ... if you believe that a war is starting between Max and Bernie (Ecclestone) because I think you have received a letter, or you have read a letter that Max sent to the branches (ASNs) and the answer written in The Times by Ecclestone about it.

VM: Well, I've seen a letter that Max has addressed to all member clubs of the FIA in which he stated his position very clearly and he has left it to the members to vote as they think best, and as far as any sort of perceived rift between Max and Bernie is concerned, I think they've both known each other for years, they've been together in this sport for years and I would leave it to them to sort out whatever needs to be sorted out.

Q. (Marco Evangelisti – Corriere dello Sport)...I wonder if increasing oil prices can become a problem, and if it gets more and more difficult to have oil companies supporting motor racing?

VM: I'm more concerned about the rise in oil prices and how it affects Kingfisher Airlines than I am concerned about the impact on Formula One. In any case, we don't have any oil companies as sponsors but yeah, this unprecedented rise of the price of oil, which President Bush says is on account of the rising consumption in India and China – I don't entirely believe that – but nevertheless, it's pushing up costs worldwide and is a cause for concern.

Q. (Will Buxton – Australasian Motorsport News)...can you just let us know how negotiations are going on regarding the Concorde Agreement: whether there are any sticking points from your perspectives and how you would like to see things ultimately resolved?

VM: We are always a supporter of the Concorde Agreement. As you may know, the only element in the Concorde Agreement that we have disagreed with is the status of constructor, or non-constructor where we have very clearly said that customer chassis should not be allowed. We've had discussions about this before. A compromise was arrived at that informally for 2008 and 2009, this would be sort of overlooked and that from 2010 it would be a Constructors' Championship. Other than that, I completely support the idea of the Concorde Agreement.