Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Perez: Podium now Force India's target

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Sergio Perez says Force India needs to target podiums on a more regular basis thanks to the updated VJM08.

Following a lack of updates during the early part of the season while Force India restructured its aerodynamic program, the team introduced a B-spec car at the British Grand Prix. Scoring points with both cars at Silverstone was seen as a major step forward, but reliability issues resulted in a scoreless race in Hungary.

Force India bounced back with a strong showing in Belgium, with Perez starting from the second row and eventually finishing fifth having run second early on. With the car consistently quick on different types of track, Perez says is setting his aims high for the rest of the year.

“The race in Belgium was good fun: it's always nice to battle at the front and, even though we didn't manage to get onto the podium, it was good to come away with our best result of the season so far," Perez said. "Our performance is improving and we are taking the opportunities when they arise. We have seen that we can now fight with nearly everyone and it's important we keep aiming for the podium.

“Monza is a true power track and so we go there confident of being competitive. It’s never easy to overtake and the strategy options are quite limited, and so getting the job done in qualifying is especially important. In the race it’s a case of being flat out all the way and being accurate with your braking points.

“My feeling with the updated car is very good now. Spa was the most comfortable I’ve been this season and it showed in the results. We need to go to Monza and deliver a similar performance.”

Click here for a look back at the 1971 Italian Grand Prix from Monza, when the top five cars were covered by just 0.61s.

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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.