McLaren looks set to face a renewed attack from Force
India in the fight for fifth place in the constructors' championship
with its Formula 1 rival having now corrected an aero concept mistake.
The
two teams had been locked in a close battle for much of the season, but
McLaren has recently edged clear thanks to development upgrades
improving its speed.
Force India had appeared unable to
respond as it slipped down the order, but deputy team principal Bob
Fernley has revealed that it has now worked out what went wrong.
Rather
than the situation being simply down to McLaren being able to outspend
Force India with its development budget, the Silverstone-based outfit
pursued a wrong aero concept.
Fernley told AUTOSPORT:
"Obviously they [McLaren] do have a much more significant development
budget than ours, but we have to take our own responsibility that our
upgrades didn't quite deliver what we had hoped they would do.
"We took a wrong direction mid-season, and we only worked that out a race or so ago.
"We
have moved in the right direction now and although it has helped us
move forward with the 2015 car, it lost us some ground just after the
halfway point of this year.
"So our tail off was the result of that step in the wrong direction."
Fernley
would not expand on the specifics of the mistake Force India had made -
beyond saying that it was a wrong 'concept' in terms of aerodynamics.
Having
uncovered what went wrong, it showed improved form in Brazil and,
thanks to double points being on offer for the season finale in Abu
Dhabi, the team knows that there is still a slim chance it can cause an
11th hour upset.
Force India is currently 34 points
behind McLaren - so in theory a fifth and sixth place finish for Nico
Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez could lift it above its rival.
Autosport.com
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