Force India turnaround 'a remarkable result'

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Force India's performance in the Belgian Grand Prix which saw it overtake Williams in the constructors' championship was "a remarkable result", according to Bob Fernley.

Williams went into the race weekend with a 15-point buffer over Force India in the standings, and was expected to be strong at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. However, both Force Indias qualified ahead of the Williams paid and Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez finished fourth and fifth respectively to secure a haul of 22 points.

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The result was enough to leapfrog Williams into fourth place, and Fernley told F1i it was significant because it was expected to be a weekend where his team was on the back foot.

Asked if it was a significant result, the Force India deputy team principal replied: “Yes it is.

"When we finished in Germany we knew that coming into both Spa and Monza we were really in Williams territory in terms of the normal performance element.

"So our view was how little damage can we suffer in terms of the 15-point gap over the two races. Can we sustain the 15 or if we can’t can we not lose too much? So obviously to come here and overturn a 15-point deficit is a remarkable result.

"And it comes back to what we said before, when those opportunities arise we’ve got to take them. That was the difference between Williams and us today, the opportunities arose on lap one, we were able to take them and we had better pace anyway.

“I think our pit wall strategy was again slightly more adventurous than Williams too.”

With Hulkenberg running third after pitting under an early safety car, the German looked set to challenge for the first podium of his career but Fernley says Force India couldn't be too annoyed by the timing of a red flag which scuppered those hopes.

“Well it was very painful but on the other hand you’ve also got to look at it from the point of view that the incidents on lap one gave us that position in the first place. So you win some and you lose some, but yes we were very well positioned at that safety car point.”

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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.