Force India to bring new upgrades to Singapore

©ForceIndia

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Force India owner and team principal Vijay Mallya says that they are determined to keep fighting hard for the rest of 2017.

At this point in the season, many teams are turning their attention to next year's car designs. But Mallya insisted this week that Force India's eyes remain firmly on this year's prize.

“We haven’t eased off," he said. "Development of the VJM10 continues and will bring benefits for the 2018 car too.

"We are still bringing new parts to the track and both cars will have developments this weekend," he revealed.

Force India is currently in fourth position in the constructors championship. Drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon are seventh and eighth respectively in the drivers standings, just three points apart.

"It feels pretty good for our team to be sitting in fourth place in the championship," said Mallya.

"The strong showing in Monza brought us our tenth double points finish of the season, which is a tremendous effort by the entire team.

“With seven races to go, the season is rushing by quickly. We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing all year long.

"It’s about being consistent, picking up the points and taking our opportunities."

Why does Ocon just love Singapore's 'weird schedule'?

Taking their opportunities means ensuring no more costly on-track clashes between Perez and Ocon for the rest of the season. Perez has a good track record at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, and finished in the points here last year.

Reliability will be sorely tested in the hot and humid conditions of Singapore. This week's race is routinely described as one of the hardest on the Formula 1 calendar for both cars and drivers.

"It’s a tough weekend," acknowledged Sahara Force India's chief race engineer Tom McCullough. "It’s hot and humid, even at night, meaning hydration is very important. The drivers, in particular, need to be in perfect shape.

"Singapore is the longest race of the year and one in which they will need to be confident in the car and precise," he pointed out. "The walls are unforgiving and there’s no room for mistakes.

"[It] is as different a track from Monza as it can be," McCullough continued. "It’s an anticlockwise track and it has the highest number of corners in the calendar – 23 on the official map.

"The corners are quite evenly balanced between left and right and most of them are tight, low-speed turns.

"Qualifying will be very important as there aren’t many overtaking opportunities," he added. "Despite this, races are often very entertaining - and the safety car is a common sight!"

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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.