Force India team principal Vijay Mallya says his squad looks to “add more points to our tally” during this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, despite the VJM08 lacking the outright pace to challenge for top-ten finishes on merit at the moment.
The Silverstone-based outfit did not bring any updates to its 2015 challenger in Spain, where both Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg ended up circulating at the back of the field.
Mallya hopes the unusual layout of Circuit de Monaco will help Force India emulate past achievements at Formula One’s most iconic venue.
“Although we struggled for outright pace in Barcelona, the unpredictable nature of Monaco could help us spring a surprise,” he said. “It’s a track where we’ve been successful in the past [fifth places in 2013 and 2014] and I believe we can do something special again this year.
“The softer tyre compounds suit the VJM08 and we have two drivers who adore racing in Monaco. We must also be ready to make opportunistic strategy calls from the pit wall.”
With Force India’s B-spec car not scheduled before the post-Austrian Grand Prix test, Mallya is happy to stay within reach of the midfield outfits and targets improvements in qualifying pace to capitalise on Sunday.
“Before the Spanish Grand Prix I said the priority was to keep in touch with the midfield teams until we bring more performance to the car. It’s encouraging to see that we are just eight points away from fifth place in the standings and hopefully we can add more points to our tally this weekend.
“One area we need to improve is our qualifying speed so that we can take advantage of our race pace, which has been much more competitive.”
Force India currently holds eighth in the Constructors’ standings and is the lowest classified squad among the point scorers. Hulkenberg is 11th in the Drivers’ table, one point and two spots ahead of team-mate Perez in 13th.
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