Fernley: Drivers’ different styles help develop car

Force India’s Bob Fernley says Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg’s different driving styles help their team “get the optimum out” of the VJM09.

The two drivers have been paired together since the 2014 campaign and proved to be solid pairs of hands as they rack up points on a regular basis. The Mexican has even made four podium appearances over that span, including two in the last three races.

“Both our drivers have been performing well over the last few years,” Fernley said in the latest edition of the Force India podcast. “We have had no issues.

“We have a great pairing of drivers. They complement each other, they have slightly different driving styles, which help the engineering team get the optimum out of the car and they are pushing each other very very hard.

“We are very lucky to have two such high-quality drivers.”

After securing a best-ever result of fifth in the 2015 Constructors’ championship, Force India was slow off the gate this year with only eight points amassed across the first four races.

Since then, the Silverstone-based outfit has enjoyed a positive momentum to bag 51 points and move to P5 in the standings.

Asked whether there was increased pressure at Force India in the wake of its historic season, Fernley replied: “There is always pressure.

“There is pressure if your start to slide because obviously it has a financial impact as well as an emotional impact. And there’s pressure to stay where you are and to improve. [Team principal] Vijay [Mallya] for sure would like the pressure to improve to be a little harder (laughs).

“We were confident that we could deliver strong finishes in the first four races, certainly the car that we capable of doing that. Circumstances did not go our way for four races: two of those, we lost both cars on the first lap. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“In Barcelona we put the expected upgrade on, which helped. But again, we had a fire with Nico so we were back to one car delivering points. Since then, we have been very strong with both cars finishing in the points in Monaco, Canada, and Baku.”

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