Friday: Hülkenberg and Perez still have work to do to improve their Force India cars
The two Force India F1 drivers experienced mixed fortunes this Friday in Suzuka. While everything went rather well for Nico Hülkenberg, it was not the case for Sergio Perez. However, both men have work to do to perfect the settings of their cars for the qualifying and the race.
Nico Hülkenberg (No. 27) – 14th and 12th
The German is reasonably satisfied with his first day of testing at Suzuka, even though there is room for improvement. Hülkenberg knows which direction to take to improve things on his VJM07: « Today’s testing sessions went quite well on our side, even though there were a lot of yellow and red flags during FP2 that disrupted things. We have a clear idea of what we need to focus on to find a bit more speed and hope that the setup changes will improve the car’s balance for tomorrow’s qualifying session. »
The Force India driver also commented on the typhoon risks for the race, and he does not seem too worried: “I am not too concerned about the rain expected later this weekend; we just have to wait and see, especially for Sunday. We are all in the same boat regarding the weather, and we will need to react to the situation.”
Sergio Perez (No. 11) – 13th and 15th
For the Mexican driver, things did not go as well: « It was a difficult day because we lost track time this afternoon. This means we could only do a short stint with each tire compound and I couldn’t run with fuel. »
Perez still needs to work on improving the performance of his Force India with the softest compound brought by Pirelli to Japan: « My initial feelings were good with the hards, but we still need to work on the right compromise to get the best out of the mediums. »
But he is counting on the weather’s help to level things for the race: « Obviously, if it rains on Sunday, the fact of having missed these tests doesn’t really matter, but we have to see what will happen with the weather. »
