2017 crossover could scupper Force India's chase of P4

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Force India will analyse if it can catch Williams for fourth in the constructors' championship but believes the crossover to the 2017 car could prevent a serious challenge.

Sergio Perez finished third at the Monaco Grand Prix with Nico Hulkenberg sixth to give Force India a haul of 23 points, second only to Mercedes last weekend. With Williams scoring a solitary point, the gap to fourth in the standings has been cut to 29 points and chief operating officer Otmar Szafnauer told F1i a further position is in Force India's sights.

“Fifth has always been the target," Szafnauer said. "We’re in fifth now, so we should be looking at what it takes - there’s a lot of racing left - what does it take to get us into fourth and consolidate fifth. We should just work hard and see where it gets us.”

However, when asked if the team will be able to keep developing its current car, Szafnauer replied: “The 2017 crossover for us might come too soon.

"We don’t have the resources of some of the bigger teams, so we’ve got to make a smart play on when we do that. We don’t want to have a horrible season next year just to have a little bit better season this year. So we’ve got to be pragmatic in the switch.”

And deputy team principal Bob Fernley also confirmed there are few updates planned for the 2016 car during the rest of the season.

“Not really [any updates]," Fernley said. "I think we are where we are and we just need to optimise it. I think there’s some more to come out of it.”

Technical analysis - Monaco

From the cockpit: Felipe Nasr on a controversial Monaco Grand Prix

Scene at the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix

Driver ratings - Monaco Grand Prix

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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.