Sunday Report: Force India – Thank You Sauber!
The Indian team should have finished the first Grand Prix of the season just outside the points, but benefited from the disqualification of the Sauber drivers to score some units, placing 9th and 10th on paper.
But the overall result for Force India is disappointing despite Adrian Sutil’s good start, Paul di Resta’s respectable race, and the reliability that was there!
Adrian Sutil – 9th (11th before the disqualification of the Saubers)
Overall, it wasn’t a bad race. Starting from 16th on the grid wasn’t easy; the start itself went well and, as usual, there were a lot of cars at the first corner, but I gained several places in the first lap. We had good on-track performance and, in the end, it was a good race for a first this season. It’s a shame to be outside the Top 10, but we hope to perform better and aim for points in Malaysia.
Paul Di Resta – 10th (12th before the disqualification of the Saubers)
We made a rather good start, battling with Kobayashi, which allowed one of the Toro Rosso cars to get through, and from there we lost a bit of momentum.
Our pace was a bit off today, but I hope in Malaysia we will be able to understand why and be a bit better once the upgrades are introduced. Adrian and I were on different strategies and we had to save fuel towards the end of the race […].
I hope to do a better job in Malaysia than what I did here today, but in hindsight, I am relatively pleased.
Otmar Szafnauer
It was good to see both Force India cars having a solid race today. It is, of course, disappointing to finish just outside the points, but we must take away the positives and what we have learned this weekend.
Paul had an impressive first race, taking care of the tires and showing that he had no problem acclimating to F1.
Adrian gained 5 places at the start and delivered a great performance today.
Moreover, the collective result confirms our reliability; what we need now is to work on our race pace to truly start chasing points.
