Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Force India sees B-spec progress amid Hungary woes

Force India is confident its B-spec car showed improved outright pace despite numerous reliability issues during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

The team only introduced a new aerodynamic package at Silverstone, with both Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez finishing in the points at a circuit where Force India expected to struggle. However, in Hungary the team had a suspension issue which caused a big crash for Perez in practice, while Hulkenberg retired from the race with a front wing failure.

Speaking exclusively to F1i, when asked if Force India was still encouraged by what it had seen from the new package, team COO Otmar Szafnauer replied: “Very, because once we fix what we experienced in Hungary, which we will do, then the underlying pace is better. So it’s good.

“Monza we have a Monza-specific package as everyone does, and in Spa we’ll have to see. We have got some upgrades coming for Spa as well, some for Singapore too.”

However, Szafnauer admits Force India might need to revise its target of challenging Red Bull for fourth place in the constructors’ championship.

“Red Bull scored a lot of points [in Hungary]. We’ll see. First we’ve got to consolidate fifth because we’re only four points ahead now, so that’s first and foremost and then we’ll look forward. We’ll know in the next two or three races.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.