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Vitantonio Liuzzi is expecting the second race into his Formula 1 comeback to be more difficult than his return to the top flight at the Italian Grand Prix. Taking over the Force India seat vacated by Giancarlo Fisichella, Liuzzi was one of the stars of the Monza event and was on course for a top-fivefinish until a driveshaft failure intervened.

But the Italian believes this weekend’s race in Singapore will be a more difficult challenge due to his unfamiliarity with the bumpy street course.

“Here it will be a bit of a question mark because I don’t know the circuit – it’s the first time for me here in Singapore and racing at night,” he said. “But I’m more comfortable with the car and the whole environment around the car, so I’m really optimistic that now I just have to learn 90 percent the circuit and 10 percent still a little bit the car.”

Liuzzi admits the 61-lap race will also be a gruelling physical test. “Here everybody complained last year that it was the toughest race physically of the year,” he noted. “I feel pretty fit and I didn’t have any problem at all on my comeback in Monza, and I feel ready for all the races in the championship. But for sure it won’t be easy; it will be a big exam for me physically. But I’m ready – I like the big challenges, I’m a fighter, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Force India’s form in the past two grands prix at Spa and Monza has been a revelation, but Liuzzi suspects the VJM02 might not be as well-suited to the slow, high-downforce Marina Bay layout.

“We have a bit of a question mark because with high downforce, like we use here, the car is a little bit less efficient than in the Monza aero set-up,” he said. “But we’ve brought a reasonably big update that will improve our car’s downforce, so we’re still really optimistic that we can fight for points.”