Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Abu Dhabi displayed full extent of Force India progress

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Force India COO Otmar Szafnauer says the team's progress was displayed in full by its performance at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Having been third fastest in FP2, Sergio Perez qualified on the second row of the grid and finished the race fifth ahead of team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in seventh place. With Force India often struggling to score heavily with both cars, it marked the biggest haul of points from a single race this season, and Szafnauer says it shows how competitive the team now is.

“We end the season with a strong result and 16 world championship points – the most we’ve scored at any race this season," Szafnauer said. "The strong result is the ideal way to conclude the most successful season in the team’s history.

"The car has been working very well here and the team has done a fantastic job to deliver our most competitive performance of the year in terms of outright pace. The result shows just how much progress we have made this season and gives me confidence ahead of 2016."

And Szafnauer says there will be no time for reflection at Force India as it looks to bridge the gap to the top four teams in 2016 having finished this year 51 points behind Red Bull.

"The second part of the season is testament to the hard work of everyone in the team and highlights the upward direction the team has followed in the last few years. We will celebrate this year's results, but we know we cannot rest on our laurels: we're already at work on our 2016 cars to pick up where we left off tonight and be competitive from the start of next year’s championship.”

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - F1i's driver ratings

Chris Medland's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix review

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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.