A productive day despite some tricky conditions, says Force India’s Szafnauer

Barcelona, 11 May 2018: Sahara Force India, the only Indian outfit in the Formula One World Championship, who finished fourth consecutively for the last two years, to head the midfield, and punching above their weight in terms of resources when compared to the top teams, have begun 2018 on a sober note. But with Sergio `Checo’ Perez, finishing on the podium in the last round, the team is buoyed with the third place as the F1 bandwagon moves to the European leg starting with the Spanish GP at the Circuit de Barcelona.

Perez who failed to score in the first three races, bounced back with a his 8th podium, the 5th with Force India. And the 15 points garnered in Azerbaijan in the last round and along with Esteban’s one point from his 10th in Bahrain, brought back Force India into the 6th place with a total of 16 points, 20 behind McLaren, who are currently in fourth place and 19 behind Renault who are in fifth place, just one point behind McLaren.

SERGIO PEREZ – VJM11-02

FP1	1:20.924	P13	36 laps
FP2	1:19.962	P10	28 laps

Sergio: “I think we’ve made a lot of progress throughout the day. We have some good information and we have learned about the new parts on the car; we have made a step forward. The balance is still not ideal so there is the potential to find more performance tomorrow. The track was very green this morning, but it improved this afternoon even though it was very windy.”

ESTEBAN OCON – VJM11-03

FP1	1:21.144	P16	27 laps
FP2	1:20.024	P11	38 laps

Esteban: “It was a solid day and a big effort by the team to try so many different things on the car in the first session. We managed to complete most of the big jobs and now we need to do more homework to understand everything. I think there is still a lot more to come because we are not exactly where we want to be with the car. Track conditions were not easy for anybody because it was very windy and difficult to put together a clean lap and stay on the track.”

OTMAR SZAFNAUER
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

“It’s been a productive start to our weekend, despite some tricky conditions. Our work today was mostly aimed at evaluating new aero parts – floor, barge boards and front wing – as well as gathering data about the tyre compounds. The wind was reasonably high and it caught a few drivers out but we managed to collect all the critical data we needed to help our preparations for the weekend. There was a small problem with Sergio’s left front wheel at the end of the session, the cause of which we are investigating, but it only cost us a minimal amount of track time. We are in pretty good shape ahead of the weekend with plenty of data to analyse tonight so that the team can make the right decisions for qualifying and the race.”