Perez confirmed at Force India for 2015

Sergio Perez has extended his contract to continue racing with Force India for 2015 and beyond. With Nico Hulkenberg already confirmed, it means an unchanged driver line-up at the team for next season.

Perez, 24, joined Force India at the start of 2014 and enjoyed immediate success with a podium finish in only his third race for the team. He has scored points a total of 11 times this season and lies 12th in the current driver standings.

"It's good to announce my plans," said the Mexican. "As soon as I joined Sahara Force India, I noticed the hunger and determination of everyone in the team, and I'm very proud to be part of that. I feel at home here and I'm fully committed.

"I'm enjoying my racing and we've already celebrated some special results together. It's important for me to establish myself in a team and have some continuity. The team have given me a competitive car this year and I believe we can continue to achieve great things together in the future."

Dr Vijay Mallya, Force India team principal and managing director, commented: "I am delighted that Checo will continue with us. He's a true racer who has done a fantastic job for us this season. The whole team has been impressed with his speed and race craft, as well as his role away from the track. He has a very bright future in Formula One and we will do our utmost to give him the equipment to match his talent.

"I look forward to celebrating more strong results with Checo this year and in years to come, and I cannot wait for Checo's first home Grand Prix in Mexico [next year] in front of his huge following of passionate fans."

F1.com 
 

Abu Dhabi GP - Qualifying - Force India driver quotes

Sergio Perez (13th, Q2 - 1:42.239)
"Today wasn't an especially difficult day, but we simply didn't have the pace to extract a better position from qualifying. We expected this, which is why our set-up is more geared towards the race. The way the tyres are behaving here is quite different from the past in Abu Dhabi so we had to amend our set-up accordingly: we hope this will give us some advantage tomorrow. In any case, the strategy choices are quite limited on this track so I don't expect any adventurous choices from anyone on the grid. We have made some big changes compared to yesterday; hopefully they will pay off when it matters and we can close our season with another points finish."

Nico Hulkenberg (14th, Q2 - 1:42.384)
"Going into qualifying we knew we that our pace over one lap was not the best and that it would be difficult to make the top ten. With the set-up we chose it has been quite tricky to find a good harmony over one lap on this track. The good news is that our race pace looks stronger and I hope we can perform better tomorrow. Also, there are double points on offer, so everything counts twice. It's also the last race of the year so we should try and take some chances to finish the year in a good way."

Vijay Mallya, Force India team principal and managing director
"We enter the final race of the season with nothing to lose and an outside chance of claiming fifth place - so we will need to give it our all tomorrow. Our one lap pace today was not that strong, but we are hopeful of a more competitive showing in the race. Unfortunately this is one of those circuits that always proves difficult for overtaking so our best chance is to try and do something with the strategy to bring our cars into play. Whatever happens tomorrow we look forward to a spectacular finale to the season and I look forward to the championship showdown between Lewis and Nico."

F1.com

Abu Dhabi GP - Practice - Force India drivers quotes

Sergio Perez, P1 - 1:45.983, 9th; P2 - 1:43.746, 11th
"It was a busy day, but I think we did a good job of getting the information we needed and understanding the changing temperatures throughout the day. Tyres will clearly play a big part with quite high degradation over the long runs and that will be the main challenge on Sunday. So it's important to analyse the tyre performance and see where we can improve. We also need to focus on our single lap pace with the target of Q3 tomorrow, but it's looking very competitive to try and get in the top ten."

Nico Hulkenberg, P1 - 1:46.030, 10th; P2 - 1:44.068, 13th
"The first session went well, but my car felt quite different this evening and not so easy to drive. It's something we need to analyse and understand because it certainly had an impact on performance and lap time. Despite these issues I was still able to get a feeling for the tyres, which have been more of a challenge than we expected. It was very cool this evening at the end of FP2 and that was a big factor on tyre performance."

Otmar Szafnauer, Force India chief operating officer
"We made a good start to our Abu Dhabi programme with no significant issues to report and encouraging performance on the track. Both drivers are generally happy, although we need to find a better direction for Nico tonight to make sure he is comfortable before qualifying. The afternoon session was the most relevant, being run in temperatures more representative of qualifying and the race, and we collected all the relevant tyre information and long run data. Our long run performance needs some work, but the soft tyre certainly appears to be the more consistent of the compounds. Tonight we need to make sure the car is optimised for qualifying because it's a circuit that's always proved difficult for overtaking and grid position will be vital for a successful result come Sunday."

F1.com

Force India to test Palmer, Goddard

 

GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer will make his Formula 1 test debut with Force India in Abu Dhabi next week.

The team will also give European Formula 3 racer Spike Goddard his first F1 run.

Palmer wrapped up the 2014 GP2 title with a round to spare at Sochi last month, and said afterwards he was optimistic he could buck the recent trend of feeder series champions failing to secure F1 seats.

He hopes the Force India test can grow into a bigger opportunity.

"Force India has shown their faith in me by offering this opportunity and I am looking forward to repaying their trust in Abu Dhabi," said the 23-year-old Briton.

"I have worked very hard for a chance like this and I want to help the team get the most from this test session.

"This is a team that has always promoted talent and I hope this opportunity can lead to bigger things in the future."

Force India team boss Vijay Mallya was pleased it would be his squad giving Palmer his first F1 chance.

"As a team we have a strong track record of identifying up-and-coming prospects and giving them valuable mileage and experience in our cars.," he said.

"I have been following Jolyon's progress this season in GP2 and he is clearly a big talent that deserves a chance in Formula 1."

Palmer will drive on the Tuesday of the test before handing over to 22-year-old Australian Goddard, who was 23rd in European F3 this season.

Autosport.com

Force India F1 team corrects aero error

 

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 

Abu Dhabi GP - Preview - Force India

Nico Hulkenberg
2013 Qualifying - 6th, 2013 Race - 14th
"Abu Dhabi is a nice venue: very modern and with great facilities. The racing looks really cool on TV as the day turns into night and the track is pretty challenging for us in the car as well. The light is not really an issue once you are in the cockpit, but the layout makes it very easy to make mistakes and lose time, especially in qualifying. It's very stop-start, with a few chicanes and tight corners, so it is very difficult to get a good rhythm.

"It was nice to be back on the pace in Brazil and hopefully we will have similar pace in Abu Dhabi. It has been a great year for everyone in the team and it would be nice to end the season in style with some more points."

Sergio Perez
2013 Qualifying - 9th, 2013 Race - 9th
"Abu Dhabi is a special race on a circuit I really enjoy. It's where I first drove a Formula One car and that is something that will remain with me forever. The facilities are great and the track is not easy to master: this year we also have double points and that gives you even more motivation to do well. Everything in the lap requires some compromise - you need a set-up that works on fast corners, stop-start turns and the twisty final sectors. You also need to think carefully about your choice of helmet visor: you start the race with a low sun that requires a dark visor, and end the race in the night needing a clear one."

Dr Vijay Mallya, Force India team principal
"We are usually competitive in Abu Dhabi and I am really looking forward to it. It will not be easy [to snatch fifth in the constructors' championship], but we will give it everything we have and see if that will be enough. Whatever happens in Abu Dhabi, we already have sixth place in the championship secured, so there is nothing to lose and everything to gain. As a big Formula One fan, I am also eager to see the final chapter of the championship battle between Nico and Lewis - it will be exciting.

"I believe we have a lot to be proud of this season. We took on some huge challenges at the start of a new era of Formula One and we produced a competitive car. We took the fight to the biggest names in the sport; we got back on the podium on merit and did so without compromising on our philosophy. I feel that in Nico and Checo we have found a pair of drivers who are capable of pushing each other and the team at every race and this is helping us maximise the good work done by everyone at our headquarters and trackside. In 2014 we scored the biggest points total in our history and we want to build on this result to create an even stronger 2015."

F1.com 
 

Brazil GP - Race - Force India Driver quotes

Nico Hulkenberg, 8th
"It was quite a cool race and very satisfying to finish in eighth. With a three-stop race you are always pushing, but my race was not too complicated and I was on my own for a large part of the afternoon. I also had a few nice battles and it was good fun. The car felt a bit better today compared to earlier in the weekend so I was more comfortable and really able to push. The team made the right calls on the strategy and we maximised our performance with the tyres in these very hot conditions. I finished just behind the two Ferraris and maybe with one or two more laps I could have finished sixth instead of eighth, but that's racing."

Sergio Perez, 15th
"It was a difficult race and things didn't really go my way all weekend. With the track time we lost on Friday and the grid penalty yesterday, we always knew it was going to be hard to recover the lost ground. I tried my best to fight through in the race, but I lost a lot of track position following the five-second penalty and for most of the afternoon I was stuck in traffic. I couldn't make any progress and the cars around us were on a similar strategy. So it has been a disappointing weekend and I just hope we can have a better result in Abu Dhabi."

Vijay Mallya, Force India team principal and managing director
"It was an interesting race for us and I think we were involved in a lot of the overtaking action! Nico produced a very good performance, making the most of an alternative strategy and bringing home some valuable points. The only regret is that, had the race been a couple of laps longer, he could have probably finished a couple of positions higher. Checo always had his work cut out after taking the grid drop: he had a great start and was looking like he would make up quite a few places, but in the end the five-second pit-stop penalty undid all the good work he had done in the first part of the race. Today's results mean we will need a special result in Abu Dhabi, but we will not stop fighting as the maths does not rule us out. Formula One can be unpredictable and we're ready to take the championship battle for fifth down to the wire."

F1.com