Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley says the team is hoping to capitalise on more errors from its rivals in order to score points in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Having launched its 2015 car during the final pre-season test, Force India went in to the opening race with low expectations having qualified outside the top ten. However, with three cars failing to take the start of the race and a further four retiring, only 11 cars finished the Australian Grand Prix allowing both Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez to score points.

Fernley told F1i it was always Force India’s aim to have a reliable car in order to make the most of problems for other teams early in the season, and he admits a repeat will be needed for either driver to score points again at Sepang this weekend.

“I think once again we’re in a similar situation where we’ve got to make sure that we bring the cars home, and then hope we can capitalise on other people’s errors,” Fernley said. “We don’t quite have the pace and we won’t have that until we bring the upgrade packages in and we start to see the benefits of the aero reconstruction over the winter.”

Fernley has previously revealed to F1i that Force India will introduce what is essentially a B-spec car after the opening rounds of the season.

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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.

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