Russian GP - Preview - Force India Quotes

Nico Hulkenberg
"I can't believe this weekend is going to be my 100th race weekend in Formula One. Where has the time gone? It's a nice achievement and hopefully I can get a result to make it a weekend to remember.
"The goal is to get some more points on the board in Russia. The last two races have been frustrating for different reasons and I don't think we've shown our full potential yet. In China I really struggled with tyre degradation, but I don't think that will be such an issue at Sochi because it's a much smoother surface."

Sergio Perez
"Going back to Sochi brings back happy memories from our podium last year. I really like the track and they did a good job with the layout. I think every driver enjoys turn three because it's an unusual corner with high energies and a long duration. You can take it flat, but it's the one corner on the track which really takes the life from your tyres.
"I think we can be competitive this weekend. We didn't get things right in China and just missed out on points, so we need to concentrate on improving our race pace. It's often those difficult weekends where you learn the most and see where you can improve, so I'm confident we can be in better shape this weekend."

Vijay Mallya, team principal
"In all honesty we expected more from the start of the season, but for various reasons the cards have not fallen for us. It's worth making a comparison with 2015 because after three races last year we were in a similar position with seven points - one point more than we have this year - and that turned out to be our most successful season ever. With eighteen races to go there is a long season ahead and we have plenty of opportunities to turn around our fortunes.
"There is no doubt that we have an inherently quick car. We've always qualified inside the top ten and Checo lined up seventh on the grid in China. In the race we fell a bit short, so that is one area where we can improve. We are also working hard to bring an upgrade package to Barcelona: it's an aero step and further suspension evolutions, which will bring some performance gains.
"The objective is to be inside the top ten in qualifying and the race. That's a realistic goal and we will be disappointed if we don't come away with some points. We demonstrated last year that we can be competitive in Sochi and it's also the 100th race weekend for Nico and Checo, so we want to celebrate the occasion with a special result."

Formula1.com

Chinese GP - Race - Force India Quotes

Largely a day to forget for Hulkenberg, who received a five-second penalty for driving unnecessarily slowly in the pit lane to add to his earlier grid penalty. The only highlight for him was the fastest lap of the race. Perez ran in the points for most of the afternoon, before being passed by the Toro Rosso's in the closing stages.

Sergio Perez, 11th
“Today things didn’t go our way and the timing of the safety car didn’t help me. The start of the race was really good and things looked very promising. I was up in third place when the safety car came out and we had no option but to pit, which dropped me back into the pack. I had to fight hard because the cars around me were on different tyres and there were some quick cars recovering as well. All of this took a lot of the life from my tyres. There were some entertaining battles during the race and we put up a good fight, but the points finish slipped away in the final part of the race. I think we chose the right strategy and made good choices, but the race didn’t go our way. It’s also clear that we need to keep doing our homework to come back stronger for the next few races.”

Nico Hülkenberg, 15th
“It was a frustrating race in the end, even though the start and the first few laps were great. As the lights went out, I rocketed from P13 up to fifth place, picking up one place after the other. The safety car threw all this good work out the window because I had to stack in the pits behind Checo and dropped right down the order. The dirty air affected us, we had some faster cars coming through and this destroyed my tyres. In fact, tyre degradation was the main story of the day and we appeared to suffer more than some others, which is why I went backwards in the second half of the race. The time penalty was an added blow, but in the end it didn’t make a huge difference to my result: the rules say you shouldn’t slow down coming in, but in the heat of racing it’s hard to gauge if that is giving you an advantage. Ultimately, we didn’t have the pace to get back into the points: it’s something we have to work on and do better in the coming races.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
“It’s disappointing to come away from today’s race empty-handed, especially when you consider that we were so well placed in the early laps – up in third and fourth places. The safety car was unfortunate from our perspective as it cost us our track position and left us fighting through traffic to try and recover. We stuck to the planned three-stop race for Sergio and for a while it looked as though we might come away with points. However, he suffered with high degradation on the medium tyres toward the end and dropped out of contention with a handful of laps remaining. With Nico, we threw the dice and switched him to a four-stop strategy, but having lost so much track position from the safety car and subsequent time penalty, his race was heavily compromised. I think this weekend has shown us that we have inherent pace in the car, but we need to work hard to make sure we can deliver that pace consistently over a race distance.”

Formula1.com 
 

Hulkenberg docked three grid places for wheel loss

Nico Hulkenberg has been handed a three-place grid drop for Sunday’s 2016 Formula 1 Pirelli Chinese Grand Prix after his Force India team were found guilty of releasing his car from the pits in an unsafe condition during qualifying.

Hulkenberg’s machine shed its front left wheel at Turn 10 towards the end of the Q2, bringing out the red flags and preventing several drivers from improving their times. The German finished the session in 10th place, though he could take no part in Q3 as his car had already stopped out on circuit.

“To be honest I don’t know what happened," said Hulkenberg, whose team are investigating the cause. "We all saw that the wheel came off, but why and how, I don’t know. It was attached properly when we left the garage because everything felt normal. It didn’t feel loose and there was no indication from the steering.

"When it came off, it happened suddenly, but I was at low speed and could park the car quickly and safely. It’s disappointing because we’ve been competitive here this weekend and I would have liked to be out there during Q3."


Hulkenberg's penalty drops him from 10th to 13th on the grid, promoting Williams’ Felipe Massa to 10th and the McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button to 11th and 12th respectively. 

Formula1.com 

Chinese GP - Qualifying - Force India Quotes

Both drivers through to Q3 was a good result for Force India, who had a poor race last time out in Bahrain. However, their day was marred by Hulkenberg's left wheel coming loose towards the end of Q2, resulting in a red flag. As a result, Hulkenberg was unable to run in Q3 and the stewards handed him a three-place grid penalty. 

Sergio Perez, 7th, 1:36.865
“I am very happy with the car’s performance this afternoon. Even this morning, in the rain, we looked really competitive and to finish the day in seventh place is a result that shows the potential of our car. We made some steps forward with the balance overnight and we saw the result of that today. The track was slippery in places and it was very easy to make mistakes, but we kept our focus and came away with the result we deserved. It should be an interesting race tomorrow, with a few different strategic choices, and I am optimistic about scoring some good points. Tyre degradation will be one of the key factors in the race, but I feel we have a good understanding of all the compounds and can choose the right strategy.”

Nico Hülkenberg, 10th, 1:37.333
“To be honest I don’t know what happened. We all saw that the wheel came off, but why and how, I don’t know. It was attached properly when we left the garage because everything felt normal. It didn’t feel loose and there was no indication from the steering. When it came off, it happened suddenly, but I was at low speed and could park the car quickly and safely. It’s disappointing because we’ve been competitive here this weekend and I would have liked to be out there during Q3. The race tomorrow is going to be interesting and hopefully things will work out a bit better than today.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
“We’ve looked competitive here in all conditions so it was good to see both cars inside the top ten this afternoon. Sergio had a clean session and delivered a good lap in the final moments of Q3 to secure seventh on the grid. It was disappointing to see the issue with Nico’s wheel towards the end of Q2, which prevented him from going out in the final part of qualifying. It’s unusual to see a wheel come off and we need to investigate the issue further to understand exactly what happened. Looking ahead to the race tomorrow, I think we have every reason to be optimistic of scoring points. Hopefully, a clean race will allow us to show the true potential of our car and fight towards the front.”

Formula1.com 
 

Chinese GP - Friday - Force India Quotes

Both drivers were happy with the early progress at Force India, as Hulkenberg and Perez got their programmes completed and both ran inside the Top 10 in FP2.

Nico Hulkenberg - FP1: 1:40.169, P9;FP2: 1:38.527, P7
"I'm pretty pleased with today. There's still work to be done, of course, but we've carried out the usual learning with the tyres and tried a few different things on the car. Tyre wear is always high here and we saw that again today, so it's going to be a big factor in the race. We also saw how close everybody is on the timesheets so it's going to be a tight grid."

Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:40.347, P11;FP2: 1:38.569, P9
"The track conditions were not the best today because the wind picked up during the sessions and it was hard to be consistent. We also lost some time this morning because of the disruptions with the red flags. I think the main topic of the day is degradation and we have to try and learn how to improve that tonight as well as improving the balance of the car."

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
"Our work today involved the usual data gathering with both performance and long runs across the three tyre compounds. We obviously lost some track time this morning with the red flag stoppages caused by our competitors, but we played catch-up in the afternoon and ended the day in good shape. Both Nico and Sergio explored some set-up options to optimise the car around this quite specific track so there's a lot of information to study to understand the best direction for the rest of the weekend. The forecast for the next couple of days looks uncertain with a high chance of rain tomorrow, but at least we've done most of our homework for dry conditions."

Formula1.com 
 

Sergio Perez Q&A: Shanghai showers could suit Force India

After their strong finish to the 2015 season, Force India fans were hoping the team would carry that momentum into 2016. Two races in, however, and they have bagged just six points - less than midfield rivals Toro Rosso and newcomers Haas. But Sergio Perez insists the results don’t show the true picture. According to the Mexican driver, upgrades due in Spain should propel them up the order, while this weekend the Chinese weather could just lend them a hand…

Q: Checo, Shanghai often springs weather surprises and it looks like rain could be possible for qualifying and the race. What do you make of that?
Sergio Perez: Well that will be tricky. Yes, we’ve tried the intermediate [tyre] in Melbourne, but we didn’t run them much - but I think this situation goes for everybody. In fact, I think that our car should be competitive in wet conditions, so actually I am looking forward to it. The season has not started so well for us, so there is plenty of reason that we should do better here. I am pretty optimistic for the weekend ahead.

Q: Why optimistic here - and not with much easier conditions we saw in Bahrain?
SP: Well, because the car right now is not in its strongest pace compared to our competitors. In Bahrain we suffered, even though normally this is a circuit that suits us very well. But in the course of the last two races we have started to understand the car better and better, so we are optimistic for here - and for the upgrades that we will introduce in the course of the year.
Q: So is the first big upgrade package still scheduled for Spain in four weeks’ time?
SP: Yes.

Q: Haven’t you already had some upgrades in Bahrain?
SP: No, not really. What you saw in Bahrain was mainly a matter of set-up changes. Yes, there have been little bits and pieces, but nothing compared to what we expect to introduce in Spain.
Q: Have you been analysing with your engineers why Bahrain did not work for you - a track that, as you said, usually suits you very well?
SP: Yes, it was a poor weekend - but many times you learn the most from such weekends! (laughs) So I hope that we can capitalize on the learning curve from the last race.
Q: Theoretically these new tyre rules with the three compounds should play to Force India’s advantage, as the team has always understood optimal tyre use pretty well. Do you think that this will be a factor again once you understand the car better?

SP: I hope so and think that later on, with more variations, we can play a bit more with the strategy. But there is always a chance that you also can get it wrong, as we did in Bahrain with our strategy. From our potential we should have finished much higher up - even with the lap-one incident - so I think that we should benefit from the new rules.

Q: Pirelli predict very early pit stops with the supersoft tyres here in Shanghai. Do you think that opens up more strategic options for a team like Force India?
SP: I hope so. Now that the qualifying has changed back to the old mode, that should help. In Bahrain when you finished in P9 in qualifying you were in good shape, as you had the tyre freedom. Now you have that freedom when you qualify in P11, so actually that is not so great. So with this background people will try different things with the tyres, so it will be an interesting race. In the past people pitted very early for the first time - now let’s see what strategies everybody comes up with.

Q: Did you expect a better start into the season from Force India, given how strongly you finished 2015?
SP: We definitely finished 2015 on a high, although we also shouldn’t be in the position we are in now. We’ve really been unlucky so far. Look back at Melbourne: P9 in qualifying with the free tyre choice, and then I had a problem with the start and that put me into a poor position, but we still were en route into the points with both cars when the red flag came - and that was it for me. And Bahrain was simply a terribly unlucky weekend. So yes, we are not at the level we were expecting heading into the season - but also when luck turns against you it gets even worse. We should be a lot better than where we are right now.
But for this weekend - even with dark clouds and rain in the forecast - I see light at the end of the tunnel. The season is very long so we have plenty of ways to go. Our season last year started basically at Silverstone with the massive upgrade we brought there - and we finished fifth in the championship. This year we’ll bring the upgrade four races earlier - that should play to our advantage. But first and foremost it is always the next race that counts most - and my gut feeling is good.

Formula1.com 
 

Chinese GP - Preview - Force India Quotes

Nico Hulkenberg
“When I think of the race in Shanghai I always remember the impressive towers on the main straight and the cool paddock buildings by the lake. It’s definitely a circuit with a special character and its own personality. The city of Shanghai is also a cool place to visit and I enjoy trying real Chinese food and exploring such a different culture. I’m always fascinated by big cities and feeling the buzz of the place.
“The track is also famous for the never-ending turn one. It’s a tricky corner because it’s easy to go in too hot, especially during qualifying, and it’s a corner that eats your tyres. In fact, looking after the tyres is always hard work because Turn 13 is another long right-hander that takes even more life out of them. The rest of the lap has a bit of everything from low-speed to high-speed, which makes it challenging to find a balanced set-up.
“My expectations for this weekend are high and, after the disappointment of Bahrain, I hope we can have a clean race in China. There’s good pace in the car and reaching Q3 in Bahrain was proof of that. We had to work very hard with the car set-up to find the sweet spot, but we learned a lot of things that will carry over into this weekend.”


Sergio Perez
“I’ve always enjoyed going to China. Shanghai is an interesting city to explore and you always get huge support from the fans. They always wait outside our hotel every day just to say hello and give us special gifts.
“They did a great job with the track design in Shanghai because there is a good mix of corners. Turn 1 is what everybody talks about and it’s my favourite part of the lap. It’s such an unusual corner and you have to judge your speed perfectly because you can lose a lot of time if you don’t attack it enough. Then, on the back straight, we always see lots of drag races and it’s a question of who will brake latest going into the hairpin.
“After two disappointing races I want to get my season started properly in Shanghai. The results in Australia and Bahrain could have been so much better, but things just didn’t work out for me. That’s part of racing and I know things will turn around soon. It was a similar situation as the start of last year before my luck started to change. The atmosphere in the team is still upbeat and everybody is pushing to get more performance from the car. We made a good step in Bahrain with the upgrades so we are definitely moving in the right direction.”

Vijay Mallya, Team Principal
“It feels as though we’ve yet to unleash our true potential this season. Both the races so far have been heavily compromised, either by our own mistakes or outside circumstances, so I’d like to see what we can achieve with a clean, trouble-free race to the flag. When things go to plan, we know we can compete well inside the top ten and I expect everyone in the team to be pushing hard to reverse our recent fortunes.”

Formula1.com 
 

Bahrain GP - Race - Force India Drivers Quotes

Both Force India drivers were involved in early collisions which put paid to any hopes of points today. Trailing home towards the back of the pack with damaged cars, this was a race to forget. 

Nico Hulkenberg, 15th
“A difficult and disappointing race where not much went to plan. I made a poor start away from the line and was on the back foot going into turn one. Then suddenly three or four cars backed up on the apex and I nudged the back of somebody, which damaged my front wing and forced me to pit on lap one. From there onwards we tried to recover and pull off a two-stop strategy to get back in the race, but it proved very difficult. I was always in traffic and involved in lots of fights so my tyre degradation was very high. I don’t think we’ve seen our true pace today because the first lap destroyed my race and we were out of synch with everybody and always playing catch up.”

Sergio Perez, 16th
“Not the best of weekends for me: I knew I had to get a good start after yesterday’s qualifying result and I managed to pull off a great one, making up a lot of ground. Unfortunately, on lap two I made contact with [Carlos] Sainz, which ended up destroying my race. I was in his tow and when I went onto the marbles on the inside I just couldn’t stop the car enough. It was a real shame as the pace was there to score a good amount of points. During the rest of the race we had a lot of tyre degradation, but it’s too early to draw conclusions about what happened today: we need to go back to HQ and look at the data to make sure we come back strongly in China. We haven’t been very lucky in the first two races, even though our pace has been good, so I’m sure things will turn in our favour soon.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
“Things just didn’t go our way tonight with both Nico and Sergio heavily compromised right from the start with car damage. Nico suffered a broken front wing making his way through turn one and had to pit for a front wing change. It was a similar situation with Sergio who lost his front wing on the second lap. When you are in that situation, nearly a lap behind the rest of the pack and with a damaged car, the race is an uphill struggle. We tried our best to recover with strategy, but with no safety car or anything else to shake up the order we always knew points would be a long shot. We will need to regroup, take the positives from the weekend, such as the pace we showed in qualifying, and bounce back in China to score the points we deserve.”

Formula1.com

Bahrain GP - Qualifying - Force India Quotes

The big casualty of Q1 was Perez, with Force India not getting their timing right for his second run. There was better news for Hulkenberg, who was on the elimination bubble in Q2 before a quick lap promoted him into Q3 and eigth on the grid.

Nico Hulkenberg, 8th, 1:31.620
“It’s a nice result to make Q3 because we’ve had to work hard this weekend to get the performance we needed from the car. The changes we made last night took us in a good direction and made the difference today. During qualifying the car just got better and better, and I think the track improvement came towards us as well. All of my laps were clean and tidy, and I’m happy with our performance. Hopefully tomorrow night will be a similar story because I think we can come away with some good points. It’s true that the cars directly behind me have a free choice of tyres, but I’m happy with where I’m starting because it’s always better to be further up the grid.”

Sergio Perez, 18th, 1:32.911
“It was an unlucky session and we just miscalculated things. I think the mistake was doing an extra timed lap during my first run in Q1 because it left me short of time for my second run. It looks like we just got caught out and it’s going to hurt my race tomorrow. It’s a shame because the car has shown good pace today and we had the potential to have both cars inside the top ten. I will do my best tomorrow to fight back and recover some points.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
“Qualifying was a mixed bag and it has left us wondering what might have been. As Nico demonstrated, we found some pace overnight and he delivered an excellent lap at the end of Q2 to reach Q3. With Sergio our approach in Q1 didn’t work out and it’s left us with an uphill struggle in tomorrow’s race. We knew Sergio had to put in another lap, but a miscalculation meant we cut things too fine and left us in the drop zone and out of time. It was a mistake on our side and we hold our hand up to Sergio. Looking at the positives, we’ve seen today that the car is performing well and Bahrain offers many opportunities to overtake, so there’s every reason to believe we can bring home a good result with both drivers tomorrow evening.”

Formula1.com

Bahrain GP - Friday Practice - Force India Quotes

Force India had a troublefree day and gathered a huge amount of data with their three drivers, but neither Hulkenberg nor Perez was happy with their times in the afternoon.

Nico Hulkenberg – FP1: 1:34.601, P6; FP2: 1:33.570, P17
“The two sessions today were routine by free practice standards. It’s good, especially at this early stage in the season, to go through two sessions without any hiccups: it means we have lots of information to help us find some more speed overnight. It’s hard to judge where we stand at the moment in terms of absolute pace, but we’ve done all our homework in terms of running the different tyre compounds, which means we are well prepared for the rest of the weekend.”

Sergio Perez – FP2: 1:33.406, P15
“Even though I sat out the first session today, I believe we managed to catch up in the evening with a very busy FP2. The lap times are not where we want them to be, even if it is very early in the weekend, so we will be working hard this evening to make sure we are competitive in qualifying. The car balance is good, so we should be aiming to find some lap time and be back in the top ten tomorrow.”

Alfonso Celis – FP1: 1:37.287, P21
“Today was my first opportunity to drive the car during an official practice session and I really enjoyed the experience. Even compared to testing there were a lot more things to be aware of today, but I’m pleased with how things went. The team asked me to work through an aero programme to get some data from the new parts at the front of the car. So I left some margin with my driving because the priority was to get the information for the team. I’m already looking forward to my next time in the car in Russia.”

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
“First of all, I want to congratulate Alfonso for a good performance in FP1: he did all that the team was asking of him and he produced useful feedback for our engineers, which is what we need from a young driver. Both sessions were trouble-free from our perspective and we have a vast amount of data to draw upon as we prepare for tomorrow. There is still work to do before we can be satisfied with our pace, but I am confident we can make up that ground and be qualifying in the top ten tomorrow.”

Formula1.com

Force India introduces blown axle

Force India has a significant upgrade available to it in Bahrain, with the VJM09 now featuring a blown front axle.

This means the team will also revise the brake duct configuration, compartmentalising the ductwork to provide airflow to the necessary components.

The blown axle is a concept used up and down the grid, as it changes the way air flows around the front tyre, improving the wake it sheds.

It's a design that cannot be taken lightly, as it also puts less onus on the front wing to direct airflow around the tyre, which should result in changes here later down the line.

Airflow collected by the brake duct is passed through the hollowed-out axle and ejected out into the path of the turbulent airflow created by the spinning wheel and tyre.

This should help to smooth and shape the airflow structure, improving performance downstream.

Motorsport.com