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Force India should target third in 2017 - Fernley

Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley believes his team should look to repeat this year’s constructors’ championship result and attempt to secure third place if possible in 2017.

2016 saw Force India secure the best constructors’ championship finish in its history as the team beat Williams to fourth place. Having only finished fifth for the first time the year before, Fernley said matching the previous result is always the first aim but believes Force India can target going one better next season.

“This year we went in with a very clear view of being able to consolidate fifth place but with an eye on fourth,” Fernley told F1i. “I think we should go in next year with a plan to consolidate fourth but with an eye on third.”

Asked which of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari he feels Force India can overhaul, Fernley replied: “Whichever one gets it wrong!

“Assuming we get it right of course, but there’s always that risk.”

And Fernley says the way the current regulations place restrictions on aerodynamic testing - with wind tunnel time and size limited, as well as the use of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations - gives smaller teams a better chance at the start of the 2017 season.

“There are two elements to it. One is that on one hand this will be the first new generation of car we do under restricted aero programs. Whilst the bigger teams still have an advantage because of their investment in the wind tunnels, it’s nowhere near what it has been, so it’s a more level playing field in that sense. So I would match our technical team against them.

“Where the bigger teams will benefit is it will be a development race and they can keep throwing things at it because they’ve got unlimited budgets, effectively. You just throw things at it all the time, whereas our approach will have to be more measured and we will have to make each development count.”

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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.