Sahara Force India eked out two points from 2010's Bahrain GP with Vitantonio Liuzzi managing a ninth position finish ahead of his team-mate Adrian Sutil (12th).
"Although we missed out on points in China, we take encouragement from our race pace, which showed that the developments we are bringing to the car are paying off and that we are closing the gap to our midfield rivals," Mallya said ahead of this weekend's race.
"It's easy to point to statistics, but Paul (di Resta) finished the race just 22 seconds away from second place and seven and half seconds away from seventh place. It shows that we can stay in the hunt for points and that we have the potential to make some good progress when the championship returns to Europe."
