Tuesday 3 March at 14:14 : Mar.3 (GMM) Force India driver Adrian Sutil has backed boss Vijay Mallya's decision last year to sack the team's top managers

After the Silverstone based squad failed to score a point in 2008, Indian billionaire Mallya dismissed team principal Colin Kolles and technical boss Mike Gascoyne

Co-owner Mallya, despite also overseeing his Kingfisher and United Breweries brands, and his Indian Premier League cricket team, now heads the F1 team

But German Sutil, 26, insists the decision to farewell Kolles and Gascoyne was right

"There were quite a few problems at the end of last season and the team decided to sort out those problems, and made the decision to make a new start without Colin Kolles and Mike Gascoyne," he said

"The atmosphere is very good so obviously the decision was right -- it helped us," Sutil told F1's official website

Sutil's relationship with Kolles dates back to 2004, when he raced with Kolles' F3 team. Under Kolles' leadership, Sutil entered formula one with the Silverstone-based F1 team, in its former Midland and Spyker guises

"I have to give credit to Colin for the fact that he kept this team alive," Sutil admitted. "We have to be fair and say that he did a good job. But formula one changes so I think it was the right decision."n