Formula One news
More upgrades on the way for Force India
21 July 2009The Force India team missed out on another points opportunity in the German Grand Prix when Adrian Sutil's car came together with the Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen when exiting the pit lane. With a top eight finish still eluding the Silverstone-based outfit, another significant aerodynamics update will appear at the European Grand Prix.
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| The team has changed hands four times in the last five years |
With the ex-Jordan team having been labelled both Midland and Spyker since the buyout by Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher group ahead of the 2008 season, drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil have nearly collected points on a number of occasions, including three Grands Prix in 2009.
"The first half of the race before Adrian's stop seemed to fly past and then the next 33 laps seemed to take quite a long time!" joked chief engineer Dominic Harlow, on looking back upon last weekend's event at the Nürburgring. "The collision was very unfortunate but it was a racing incident; there were some redeeming points with Fisi's race because he made up a number of places - in fact, in the last two races he has moved up 13 positions. He enjoyed himself and yet again we got a good finish, within sight of the points.
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| Force India are now more midfield runners than tail-enders |
Although a number other than '0' is yet to appear on the team's tally, clear and impressive progress has been made this year which sees the cars now frequently challenging for Q2 grid positions, with Sutil cracking the top ten shootout last time out. "We have a few more parts for Hungary," Harlow continued. "It's not the same magnitude as Silverstone but we're keeping pace with our development plans and hopefully with the other teams. There are some front wing, brake duct and floor developments which we are pushing through. There are also the usual small mechanical changes and we will also do a little bit of extra work on the setup side for that circuit because it's quite tricky."
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| Giancarlo Fisichella boasts Formula One race experience dating back to 1996 |
With a four-week summer break coming up after the race in Budapest, the teams will return in Spain with Valencia's European Grand Prix taking place on the penultimate weekend of August. What components will Force India be rolling out for the street circuit? "It's another upgrade target for us with a slightly bigger package of new parts coming," Harlow explained. "We will have further changes to the front wing again and changes to the bargeboard area and the front of the floor and sidepods. Visually, it will be fairly different. I thought, last year, that Valencia levelled things a little bit and we looked reasonably strong there, particularly with Giancarlo - I would hope that we would continue our trend."
The summer break will be just that for teams, as all must follow strict rules to cease all development over the period, as Harlow summed up: "We're closed from August 3rd to the 16th and then we go straight to Valencia, so pretty much all the work has to be done before the close down. It's very much like the testing agreement; there are certain do's and don'ts which have been agreed - it's a good idea, it will be nice to have a break!"
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