Sergio Perez says Force India should be targeting Red Bull in the constructors’ championship with its B-spec car.
Force India will introduce its heavily updated VJM08 this weekend at the British Grand Prix, with a number of parts having been tested last week in Austria. With the team currently fifth in the constructors’ championship, Bob Fernley told F1i it will revise its targets if the car delivers the expected increase in performance, and Perez agrees fourth place should be the new goal.
“I think that should be our target, to try to chase Red Bull in the points,” Perez said when asked about Fernley’s comments. “I think if the upgrade goes well and everything goes well with this new car then we should aim for Red Bull, definitely.”
And Perez admits he is excited by the new car, although he warns the improvement could take some time to show.
“I think the whole team has been waiting so much for this upgrade. It’s the first upgrade basically throughout the year, but it’s so nice at this time to look back and see what we have achieved as a team. Knowing where we were two or three months ago - now everyone forgets we did two days of testing before the first race and that our car was really in a hurry to get to the first race.
“Now we are fifth in the constructors’, plenty of points in the drivers’ championship and plenty more to come. So I’m really optimistic and I’m sure it can be a great year. Obviously saying this, we have a big upgrade so we have to work our way around it, we have to understand the car - the characteristics, how to drive it, how to get the best out of it in terms of set-up and everything - so that will be crucial for us this weekend.”
Explaining where the B-spec improves on the launch car, Perez says it will be visually different when it hits the track on Friday.
“It’s basically plenty of parts. The floor, even some adaptation to the chassis, some changes to the rear of the floor, the diffuser … it’s all the airflow quality that we’re trying to improve. So it’s plenty of new parts, I’m sure when you see the car running you will be surprised - you might not recognise it’s our car. So it’s plenty of new parts.”
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