Qualifying - Force India driver quotes

Paul di Resta (14th, Q2 - 1m 37.370s)
“It was a very good job done by the team and equally, I think it was a very good lap by myself! We got more than I think we thought we were going to get out of it and I think that we have certainly closed the gap. But tomorrow is going to be a long race, in tricky weather conditions, but I am certainly getting more excited now about our progress with regard to improving our performance in the future.”

Adrian Sutil (17th, Q2 - 1m 37.593s)
“The first qualifying session was not too bad I think and I felt quite positive. But we did not improve too much in the second session, which I was a little surprised about and we had a problem with a mis-shift. But I know the team is working hard to try and solve these issues before the race tomorrow.”

Dominic Harlow, Force India chief race engineer
“Our aim was to maximise our qualifying performance whilst only using the option tyre when necessary. Fortunately neither driver was affected by the Red Flag midway through the first session, and both drivers progressed to Q2. As we showed at the last race, we can score points from these positions given how close things are throughout the pack. Unfortunately Adrian had a mis-shift that cost him a better lap in Q2. We'll be looking for a solid race to take advantage of the opportunities that are bound to arise in tomorrow's conditions. With some more development over the coming events and Q3 only a few tenths away, we'll be working as hard as we can to improve on these positions in future and become regular Q3 material.”


Source : Formula1.com

Friday practice - Force India driver quotes

Paul di Resta, P1 - no time; P2 - 1:39.625, 16th 
“We got through the programme we wanted. It was quite difficult to find the ultimate set-up, but I think we found relatively where we need to be on old and new tyres, and certainly how to get the wear out of them because they don't seem to be lasting quite as well as in Melbourne. Given that this was my first session here I think that it was productive, so hopefully we can sit down tonight, analyse it and go forward tomorrow.”

Adrian Sutil, P1 - 1:40.734, 11th; P2 - 1:39.809, 17th 
“We had a disappointing day. I went out on the first lap of the morning session and straight away we had some KERS issues, which affected the car's balance and power for the rest of the running. In the afternoon the guys fixed this problem, but we then had a downshift issue, which we don't seem to know exactly what it is, and the car was difficult to drive. So we need to understand this problem as it upsets the car, and with reliability and pace not there at the moment, I am a little concerned. But we shall discuss these tonight and work on them for tomorrow.”

Nico Hulkenberg, P1 - 1:40.377, 4th; P2 - no time
“It was a positive Friday session for me. We ran the super hard tyre for first time; it was interesting running and we collected some good data. We successfully carried out some aero work and I got in some good laps, which I was very happy about. Obviously P4 is a good result; it's where we want to be but it's not realistically where we are at the minute. Overall though it was a good session for the team and I am generally happy.”

Dominic Harlow, Force India chief engineering director 
“We completed our work today despite the high temperatures, particularly in the afternoon, and we are satisfied with cooling levels, which of course tend to be tested here. We have some issues to address with Adrian's car as he had problems on the downshift that affected the stability but will work on those overnight. On the hot track the drivers found quite high tyre degradation and certainly a bit of oversteer as the rear tyres degraded. It's a different scenario to the weekend in Australia, and we'll be looking through the data to define our best set-up for the race considering both the tyre behaviour and the possible weather conditions.”


Source : Formula1.com

Delhi will be ready for Indian GP insist officials

Organisers of the new Indian Grand Prix, which is due to take place in October, have denied the venue could struggle to be ready for its inaugural race.

The 5.1 kilometre Jaypee Group Circuit is currently under construction on 100 acres of land in the Uttar Pradesh state. Organisers had earmarked a mid-year completion date, but some recent visitors to the site have expressed fears the venue is far from ready.

But Dr Walter Kafitz told Speed Week that the grand prix will take place as scheduled on 30 October. Kafitz, at Sepang to oversee an Indian delegation, is now working on the Delhi project after 15 years as head of the Nurburgring circuit in Germany.

He said the track will be more than ready for Formula One, despite fears of a repeat of Delhi's controversial hosting of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

"It is a wonderful circuit for spectators as well as for the drivers," said Kafitz, adding rumours of construction delays are not true. "There will be no South Korea-type situation with us," he said in a reference to the calamitous preparations for last year's inaugural grand prix in Yeongam.

Q & A with Paul di Resta

Q. What is your feeling after first race?

Paul di Resta: 

Generally, you've got to be very positive from it. We went to the race knowing that it was going to be very difficult after our performance in winter testing and we weren't exactly where we needed to be. But we knew that the car had good reliability to last to the end of the race if anyone had any problems. That was the intention, and it went in that direction.

Q. Was it difficult to miss FP1?

PdR: It's not easy when you have to sit out practice, especially in Melbourne given it's a street track. You are one session behind everybody but it's a challenge. The team decided that Nico was going to be in the car in FP1 and I got that chance last year. I'm not going to say it's easy but I'm going to have to deal with it. I'm going to be sitting out FP1 here in Malaysia so the challenge is going to be a bit more difficult if the weather changes.

Q. In Australia, there was a moment when you had a run on Kobayashi approaching the fast left/right and he appeared to lose momentum relative to you - it seemed that you were very close to clipping his right-rear wheel when that happened. How close was it?

PdR: It was quite close. I thought that he was a bit hard. Given that he had made a mistake he wasn't as fair as he could have been. But it's racing. It just sets the standard that you always have to fight pretty hard. I'm not going to say too much about it and I'll deal with the situation if it arises again, but at the same time maybe I could have been a bit more forceful. Looking back, it didn't make any difference to the result.

Q. The changes made to the car in Australia appeared to dial out a lot of the problems you had in testing. Does that mean that we can expect a further improved performance as the team builds on what was learned two weeks ago?

PdR: You will see a little more performance from us relative to the Barcelona test. Australia is difficult to guage; we definitely improved the car and we have improved again, but you won't see anything radical. These next two grands prix are going to be pretty difficult and we definitely need to be at the top of our game. We're looking at introducing some bigger upgrades coming into the European season and hopefully we will see the benefits of that.

Q. You've taken a very methodical step-by-step approach to the start of your F1 career. Is it good to have a point to your name already, meaning that you have have ticked two boxes - the first finish and the first point?

PdR: It is. It was my first grand prix in what was a midfield car and given the task it was always going to be difficult. But we've come out of it with a point and it ticks another box and lets me focus on something else.

Source : Autosport.com

Malaysia preview quotes - Force India

Adrian Sutil, Force India
2010 Qualifying - 4th, 2010 Race - 5th

“Malaysia was a great race last year, one of my best results, so I am really looking forward to racing there again. It's a challenging circuit and with a good balance on the car you can definitely enjoy driving it. It is also usually an interesting weekend from a strategy point of view because you don't know how the rain is going to affect the teams, so it is challenging, but exciting too.”


Paul Di Resta, Force India
2010 Qualifying - n/a, 2010 Race - n/a

“I participated in FP1 last year (in Malaysia), but did not complete a great deal of laps. I really enjoyed the track, although the heat and humidity is much tougher than anywhere else we drive on the calendar. It will be interesting to see how we perform there and I am very much looking forward to my second race with the team.”


Dr Vijay Mallya, Force India chairman and team principal

“I think we have every reason to be confident, but the weather often plays a big role over the Malaysian weekend. Adrian drove a great race there last year and brought home 10 championship points, so we have something good to build on. The VJM04 has shown us that we are capable of being in the points already, so let's hope we have a clean race this week with no incidents.


Source : Formula1.com

HEAT AND RAIN: THAT'LL BE MALAYSIA

Back03 | 04 | 2011

PAUL HEADS TO Malaysia this week for the second round of the Formula One World Championship at Sepang near Kuala Lumpar. The Force India racer, who scored his first world championship point on his debut in Melbourne a week ago, spoke withJim McGill to preview the second grand prix of the season before hopping on a flight to Malaysia via Dubai.

JM: You drove at Malaysia last year in your role as Force India test driver; what are your memories of the circuit?
PdR: It's quite a good circuit. Obviously the biggest thing there is the heat, it's quite intense. The circuit itself obviously changes with the weather, because it basically rains there every day; it's very much dependant on the weather. I just have to hope I don't lose valuable track time over the weekend because of the weather.

Does the circuit at Sepang suit your driving style?
It's difficult to predict, given how little I drove it last year. What I do remember is I enjoyed the track. It has a good flow to it; some high speed, some low speed and some very long corners which are tricky on the brakes, which I think are going to be a trickier this year.
And it was interesting after Australia; we discovered the high degradation we'd experienced in pre-season testing with the Pirellis has disappeared and we had what we would categorise as 'normal' tyre wear.

You've been in the simulator this week; how much did that help?
Quite a bit; I did the simulator sessions the other day and ran through some stuff. We got some good directions regarding what we want to do with the car, but obviously we'll need to wait and see when we arrive there with the car in real-life conditions before we decide exactly how we'll set the car up.

You said after Australia that you feel the car needs more speed; are there any changes planned for Malaysia and China?
We've got some small things, but nothing major. The main changes will come when we return to Europe.

Plenty more points finishes to come - Mallya

Force India boss Vijay Mallya believes his team is in a position to repeat its double point-scoring performance at the Australian Grand Prix over the course of the season.

Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta finished ninth and tenth at Albert Park after gaining two positions each when the Saubers were disqualified. Over the course of the weekend the cars looked solid 

if not spectacular, qualifying 16th and 14th behind rivals Toro Rosso and Sauber. Nevertheless Mallya is confident the VJM04 is strong over a race distance and will prove itself with more points finishes at upcoming races.

"We were confident about our reliability ahead of the first race in Australia, but we were eager to continue work on improving our race pace during the free practice sessions," he said. "We can now expect our cars to finish among the top 10 and in the points. Both drivers drove exceptionally well and to score points from the start of the season is very encouraging. We shall be able to make some further developments to our race pace over the coming weekends, although I'm pleased with the progress of the VJM04 and all the hard work by the team at the factory. I am very much looking forward to the next race where I'd dearly like to see both cars coming home in the points once again.

He added that Malaysia in particular offered a chance for a significant points haul.

"I think we have every reason to be confident, but the weather often plays a big role over the Malaysian weekend," he said. "Adrian drove a great race there last year and brought home 10 championship points, so we have something good to build on. The VJM04 has shown us that we are capable of being in the points already, so let's hope we have a clean race this week with no incidents."

Sutil is also hoping he can build on his result from last year.

"Malaysia was a great race last year, one of my best results, so I am really looking forward to racing there again," he said. "It's a challenging circuit and with a good balance on the car you can definitely enjoy driving it. It is also usually an interesting weekend from a strategy point of view because you don't know how the rain is going to affect the teams, so it is challenging, but exciting too."

Source: espnf1.com