Force India determined to avoid team mate trouble in Sochi

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The Racing Point Force India team is determined to get back into the points this week in Sochi, after their self-inflicted disaster last time out in Singapore.

The squad is doing its best to rebuild its position in the constructors championship. It was stripped of all the points it had accrued before the summer as a result of the takeover that saved it from administration.

It immediately scored 32 points at Spa and Monza to vault its way back into seventh place in the standings. But it subsequently emerged pointless from the most recent race, as a result of a clash between drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon on the first lap of the Singapore Grand Prix.

Both drivers are determined that there will no repeat of that ignominious clash. And the team is certainly going to do all it can to avoid repeat problems this weekend.

“We all felt incredibly flat after the disappointment of the race in Singapore," admitted team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

"At the same time you have to learn from these events, put them behind you and become stronger.

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"Our drivers know that it cannot happen again and we’ve dealt with the matter now and moved on.

“There was one positive from Singapore," he continued. "The pace of the car.

"The upgrades brought us an immediate performance step. There is definitely more to come and Sochi is a good circuit to learn more about the new aero package.

"I think we can be up there this weekend fighting to be the best of the rest and scoring good points."

Szafnauer's hopes for Sochi was shared by Ocon, who had ended up in the wall at the start of the Singapore race after tangling with his team mate.

"We had a terrible weekend in Singapore, leaving empty-handed despite having a great car and the pace to score well," he sighed.

"I am determined to bounce back immediately in Russia. We have made some improvements with our upgrades so I think we will be competitive once again in Sochi.

"We can score points with both cars and we will work hard to achieve this."

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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.