Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Perez senses belief in Force India

Sergio Perez says Force India is showing increased belief it can be competitive in 2016.

Force India started last season in difficult circumstances, with the team's 2015 car late following a restructuring of its aerodynamics department. However, once the B-spec car was introduced Force India enjoyed a strong end to the season to finish fifth in the constructors' championship.

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Asked if there is a change of attitude within the team ahead of this season, Perez replied: "I think so.

"I think the team tend to believe we are competitive, we are strong and can have a great season ahead of us. It’s going to be a big challenge as always, competition is pretty strong but I tend to see different faces in the team who believe we can do well and believe we can improve what we have done last year."

And Perez is hopeful Force India will start the new season in the same position it finished 2015.

"I think at the moment it’s quite early, but I want to believe that we are where we finished off last year - not in Abu Dhabi but generally the last part of the year. If we can be there for the start of the year I think we have promising changes on the car so it can be a good year."

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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.